Walk around Bergamo wall

We'd decided to walk the perimeter of the old wall surrounding Bergamo. Boy did that turn out to be a tough one. Absolutely everywhere you walk in old Bergamo is either up or down hill. As the place we were staying in was pretty close to the top of the hill and not too far from the wall, the beginning of the walk was uphill for a short distance. Of course what goes up, must come down. So it wasn't too long before our travels took us down, down, down downwards. Along the way we stopped many times to admire the beautiful scenery of the lush green hills and Bergamo (new town) below.

Venetian built wall surrounding Bergamo

Venetian wall surrounding old Bergamo

We'd been here for a few days now and were both in love with what we saw, the hills, the greenery, pristine cobbled streets and lane ways, the mountains in the distance and of course the medieval buildings...although I'd have to say, the hills, the very thing that made this place so lovely, were pretty hard going at times.

Down Down Down!!

Anyway back to the walk...we'd reach a point where we'd gone down as far as we could and then prepared ourselves mentally for the up hill climb (internal dialogue moaned and groaned) and outwardly I even suggested it might be easier to take the bus (we didn't). Well I might be exaggerating a little here, but when you're unfit as I clearly was, this took all the energy I could muster.

Up Up Up!!

Several weeks ago we'd watched a movie called "the Way" written, directed and produced by Emilio Estevez and starring his dad Martin Sheen. The movie follows the pilgrims trail Cammino di Santiago di compostela which starts high in the Pyrenees and ends in Galicia, Spain. Anyway its a walk pilgrims have been doing for centuries. Some choose to do it alone while others take part with others. Its a very personal pilgrimage and people do it for many reasons. I'd been so inspired by the movie that I had openly declared "I too shall do the Cammino walk in a few years time... once I'd got fit.Back to my Bergamo walk. So far on the down hill journey I'd walked 3,400 steps or at least that's what my pedometer indicated. The long and gruelling ascent took a further 1,500 to complete. I can tell you by the end of it I was drenched in sweat and my lungs were beginning to burn...Hmmm, I might need to rethink my future walking aspirations...how on earth was I ever going to complete 790 kilometers walking from French pyrenees to Galicia in Spain. I calculate that to be about 987,500 steps for those of you with a long stride or in my case about 1,580,000 or the equivalent to 158 days.

Beautiful Bergamo

On our walk we found a lovely little market and purchased fruits, bread and wine. Back in our hotel room we spent the afternoon eating and sipping away feeling quite content.

Purchased sweet cherries & apricots

Purchased wild boar salami and red wine

Lunch from the market

That evening a little 'tiddled' we strolled down hill to a restaurant we came across earlier that day. I had a traditional Bergamo dish consisting of stuffed beef, while Glenn ordered a chargrilled horse steak and of course another bottle of wine.

La Tana Restaurant

What with the heat, the very steep hill and the alcohol I practically had to crawl the 300 meters to our B&B.

 

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