Travel Reference
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17th and 18th centuries. You can peek through slits at the entrance to see the frescoed gallery around the court-
yard.
Barely 3km southwest, on a farming estate, lies the crenellated brickwork Castello di Malpaga , another
Colleoni residence. He had the original 14th- century castle expanded, turning the original defensive walls into a
kind of interior courtyard. Some original frescoes still remain in place.
Picking up the S again, you wind up in Romano di Lombardia after 12.5km. The Rocca is a castle built
just beyond the old town under Milan's Visconti clan. Its four high walls are topped by square-based towers at
each corner. Partly overgrown with greenery and in need of restoration, it houses a library and offices. You can
wander into the courtyard in office hours - note the fresco of the lion of St Mark.
From Romano, the next objective is Caravaggio . Aside from the impressive Chiesa dei Santi Fermo e
Rustico , with its brick Gothic facade, fine frescoes and imposing 16th-century bell tower, and its claim to fame as
the birthplace of the like-named artist, the town's main attraction lies along a tree-lined boulevard about 1.5km
southwest of the centre. The Santuario della Madonna di Caravaggio is a grandiose building started at the or-
ders of Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan, after an alleged sighting on this spot of the Virgin Mary in 1432.
With its fine dome and richly decorated 18th-century interior, it remains a major object of pilgrimage today.
A short hop northwest brings you to Treviglio (pop 25,000), at whose centre rises the Collegiata di San
Martino , a brick Gothic church with a deep baroque makeover and typically impressive tower. A minor country
road leads northeast out of Treviglio for Brignano Gera d'Adda , home to one of several Visconti castles in
the area. Now a baroque residence jammed with frescoes and backed by an overgrown garden, the Palazzo Vis-
conti (Via Vittorio Emanuele II) is undergoing renovation. Barely 3km southeast, in Pagazzano , stands yet
another Visconti castle, the Castello di Pagazzano , this one decidedly more fortress-like and surrounded by a
(filled) moat. The museum inside recounts rural life and includes a 1736 wine press.
Crespi d'Adda , some 20km northwest along various country roads, is a perfect example of the workers'
town and factory built by enlightened industrialists in various parts of Europe in the late 19th century. Here, the
Crespi textile dynasty built cotton mills (which only closed in 2004), modest but pleasant housing for employees,
a rather boisterous castle for the family and various services. The whole was declared a World Heritage Site in
1995. The village ( www.villaggiocrespi.it ) is still inhabited so there are no formal visiting hours. If hunger
strikes, make for Osteria da Mualdo .
From Crespi, follow the Adda river north 15km to Carvico. Two kilometres east is Sotto il Monte Gio-
vanni XXIII . Angelo Roncalli was born in this hamlet in 1881, which, as its name suggests, lies at the foot of a
vineyard-draped mount that is topped by a medieval tower. In 1958, he become Pope John XXIII. In his five
years as pontiff, he changed the face of the Catholic Church through the Vatican II Council reforms. You can visit
his humble birthplace in the centre of town and a small museum set up in a house he used on summer holidays as
cardinal.
From here, it is an 18km drive east back into Bergamo along the S road.
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