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This square is dominated by elaborate Bergamasco architecture: the entrance to Santa Maria Maggiore, the façade of the Capella Colleoni and a fanciful baptistery of 1340.

One of Northern Italy’s most theatrical squares is surrounded by retro-medieval stone buildings, Renaissance palaces, a 12th-century tower and several historic cafés.

The anchor of the twinned Piazzas Vecchia and del Duomo is this magnificent Renaissance chapel devoted to Bergamo’s warrior-lord Bartolomeo Colleoni. In pink and white patterned marble, it is covered with reliefs and Rococo frescoes.

Inside the basilica, every inch of ceiling is covered with frescoes. Against the back wall is the tomb of composer Gaetano Donizetti. The gorgeous, early 16th-century, inlaid wood panels fronting the choir are by Lorenzo Lotto.

Here are the original sheet music, piano and memorabilia of Bergamo’s early 19th-century composer Gaetano Donizetti. He died, in the very bed on display here, of syphilis in 1848.

The main drag of Bergamo’s Upper Town is lined with shops and wine bars, modest medieval palaces and churches, tiny squares and half-timbered houses. It’s closed to most traffic, and filled every evening with hordes of locals and visitors.

Built by the town’s Venetian lords in the 16th and 17th centuries, the castle in the hamlet of San Vigilio on Bergamo’s hill has been reduced to the romantically decrepit ruins you can see today, with a public garden boasting fine views.

Bergamo’s modern art gallery features exhibitions alongside a permanent collection with works by some of Italy’s key 20th-century painters: Giovanni Fattori, Boccioni, De Chirico, and Morandi as well as some nice Kandinskys.

This excellent gallery is renowned for its outstanding works by early 16th-century master Lorenzo Lotto. Paintings by Raphael, Botticelli, Bellini and Mantegna round out the collections.

Although the façade dates from 1897, this respected theatre was built in 1792, and the Neo-Classical interiors are wonderfully preserved. It has an annual opera season, plus ballet and drama.