Bergamo

Our final visit before we started up on farms again was Bergamo, home of the pastas scarpinocc and casonsei. Being a city in the north of Italy, polenta was also in plentiful supply. We arrived on time, but were greeted by our airbnb host late and with the news of our accommodations not actually being where they were stated on the website. After a 15 minute journey even further away from the city we arrived at our palace and immediately decided to find some dinner.

While searching for a place that served authentic cucina povera we meandered straight into an international (mostly) food market - German sausages, Greek gyros, Italian piadine, deliciously pillowy salty yet somewhat sweet pretzels, roast pork, amazing ginger snaps, beautiful handmade wooden products for the kitchen, PORCHETTA, artisanal sausages both dry and fresh with the farmer cutting off slices giving them to people to try, tiroli being boiled and fried right before your eyes and so much more. We opted for a plate of roast pork with roasted veg in drippings. As the trend seems to be in Italy, the veg stole the show. So deliciously sweet from the slow caramelization, yet salty, sweet and packed full of meaty from the (you guessed it) roasting pork.

Fast foward to the following day: we fuel up on cappuccino and pastry and beeline it to a little one way tram ,that takes you to the Upper City, called the Funicolare. (Who put the "fun" in Fun-i-co-lare?!). Once up there we leisurely strolled around the stone streets, taking in the old buildings and Italian-ness of it all. Upon entering a typical piazza we decided to check out a basilica, as Italy typically has at least one per city and they rarely disappoint. This one far exceeded any expectations I have had for any of these ornate structures. There was so much beautiful art all over the place. It was as if a medieval tattoo artist was let loose on a church and just told to go wild. Murals on the roof bled into each other, albeit it in a very cohesive manner, and statues dotted the church. It was a lot. It was too much to take in. Ocular overload in a magnificently glorious way.

Once our eyes had recovered and brain caught up processing what we had seen we decided on lunch. Much debate ensured, but we settled on a pretty nondescript looking cafe that served one of Bergamo's beloved pastas: CASONSEI. Now going into this I was determined to discern the difference between scarpinocc (Bergamo's other most well known pasta) and casonsei. From what I thought scarpinocc was supposed to resemble a shoe (scarpe), but as it panned out and we visited more and more pasticcherias, it appeared casonsei also bore a strong resemblance to a shoe. Working up the guts to try and butcher my way through an Italian sentence I asked a few people what the difference is. The response: the filling. They all said that the shape is interchangeable, but casonsei will always have a meat filling; scarpinocc, a cheese based one. Our casonsei was sensational. It was accompanied by a locally brewed stout, which again was magnificent. As it turns out, the craft beer game in Bergamo is exceptionally strong. That tiny city is churning out some delicious beers. Moretti and Peroni move over, there's a shitload of NKOTB.

The afternoon was spent trying to avoid sporadic bouts of rain. We sought shelter in what we thought was the Botanical Gardens, but turned out to be a children's playground. Either we can't read or the sign was so very wrong.

Skip to dinner and we find ourselves once again in Citta Alta at a restaurant with copper pots, swords and medieval kitsch hanging all about. We had what we would find to be very common dishes in the north of Italy  (and delicious at that): polenta and roasted meat, and polenta and braised meat.

Besides studying the local pastas, we also did some shopping in Bergamo. On a fair weather day, we  took the train to Lake Como, one of Italy's largest and most famous lakes. When we got to Como we  pretty much hopped right on a ferry, to enjoy the lake. The trip up the lake and back ended up taking  up most of the afternoon, but we did fit in a stop in the town of Bellaggio, and got a good look at George Clooney's multi-million dollar lakefront property. The last train of the day to Bergamo was then caught with enough time for Matt to first stop on the way to get a high five from a giant hand statue.

The remainder of our time in Bergamo was comprised of pretty much exploring Citta Bassa and returning to Citta Alta to eat. A delicious and beautiful city!!