Gromo

Gromo sits at 676 meters on a rocky spur above the right bank of the Serio, forty kilometers northeast of Bergamo in the upper Seriana Valley. In the Middle Ages, the village was called the little Toledo: its forges produced swords, daggers, halberds, shields and cuirasses exported across Lombardy and beyond, powered by the current of the stream below. Silver mining in nearby veins fed the Bergamo mint until the fourteenth century.

With the official act of 12 February 1267, Gromo gained autonomy and the rights to sell its metals. The Castello Ginami, built on the rock in the first half of the thirteenth century by the Buccelleni and later passed to the Ginami family, still dominates the village. The Chiesa di San Giacomo, fifteenth century, holds gilded altars, sixteenth-century frescoes, wooden statues and old parchments. In winter, the Spiazzi di Gromo plateau above town runs alpine and cross-country skiing; in summer, the same valleys feed trekking into the Orobie.