One of the oldest establishments in Italy, during the Renaissance it was known as the “inn of two swords”, but in 1681 it took the name of the poet to whom Bergamo dedicated the statue next to it. At the height of the Risorgimento, it took a direct hit from an Austrian cannon, and in 1859 it was here that local volunteers signed up to become part of Garibaldi’s Thousand. Renovated in a neoclassical style, like the lovely square it looks onto in Bergamo Alta, Kokoschka, Manzù, Gavazzeni, Benedetti Michelangeli, Rod Steiger and others have stopped off here. Run by the second generation of the same family.