A Walk from Bergamo to Monte Gussa

Left: On the Sentiero Laudato Sii near Astino, Bergamo.
Right: Descending the Via Pasqualina Ripa.

Monte Gussa has always been that "other" hill in the distance that we would see on our walks around Bergamo but never quite found the time to visit. Well no more. Today, we spent about 3.0 hours (seems like all our recent hikes are about this length) before lunch to visit this minor peak just outside of Bergamo.

Monte Gussa is a 390 m (1,280 ft) peak not far from Bergamo's Upper City – if you are a strong walker. The area is included in the Parco dei Colli di Bergmo, a large park area that encompasses parts of Bergamo and it's surrounding hills. From our usual starting point at more or less Piazzetta Delfino, we calculated about 13.5 km (8.3 miles) roundtrip. (We didn't turn on the tracker until the Borgo Canale.)

To understand the relationship of Monte Gussa to Bergamo, look at the outline of Bergamo with its hills that looking like a spiny crustacean.  These hills are our playground, but for some reason, Monte Gussa eluded us until today. Along the way to Monte Gussa, we saw:

• In Borgo Canale, the recently restored lavatoio (wash house) that makes one glad to have indoor plumbing and a washing machine!
• Chiesa di San Martino della Pigrizia where pigrizia ("laziness") doesn't refer to the saint but to a growing capability of the land as described in this Bergamo News article. San Martino (Martin of Tours) is best known for an account where he uses his sword to cut his cloak in two, giving half to a beggar clad only in rags in winter. True to that description this bronze door – and a very pretty one at that – shows that scene.
• The Laudato Sii Trail. This is a relatively new trail nearby Astino that we think is named after the second encyclical of Pope Francis Laudato si'. The title translates as "praise be to you" usually followed by "my lord". It's an informal imperative using the verb to be (essere) and fully written as "laudato sii". You can truncate the second letter I and substitute an apostrophe. We couldn't find any definitive source to confirm the name, but with the pictures of Saint Francis on the sign, it seems like a logical conclusion that the trail is named for the encyclical.

Happy walking!

Left: On the road to Chiesa di San Martino della Pigrizia.
Center: The bronze door of the Chiesa di San Martino della Pigrizia showing the saint giving half his cloak to a beggar.
Right: Near Monte Gussa, a patch of Euonymus europaeus commonly called spindle.

Left: The start of the walk up Via Salita della Scaletta, near the funicular of the lower city.
Center: The last bit of trail before reaching the "peak" of Monte Gussa.
Right: The cross at Monte Gussa. 

Left: The recently restored wash house on (lavatoio) in Borgo Canale.
Right: The sign for the trail Laudato Sii.

Left: A depiction of the spines of the hills of Bergamo along with the tracks for today's walk.
Right: The area encompassing the Parco dei Colli di Bergamo.

Viewranger tracks and stats (the tracker was turned on at the 2 km mark). We followed the route clockwise.