The Southern Lakes cycle route is, together with its northern counterpart, part of a widespread agreement by the Provincial Administrations of Bergamo, Brescia, Lecco and Milan to improve connections between the respective cycling and walking networks and consequently improve the use and knowledge of natural, artistic and historic resources of the lake areas in Lombardy. Well serviced by the many railway stations along the Milan-Venice line, the cycle route crosses the characteristic agricultural landscape of the irrigated lands of Lombardy, between the Adda River and the Martesana Canal directly connected with the Milan metropolitan area, to the Oglio and the nature trails in the same park, with junctions with the cities of Brescia and Cremona. Over and above the main towns of the Bergamo plains, like Treviglio and Romano di Lombardia, there are famous artistic and architectural monuments, or the town of Caravaggio, known internationally as a pilgrimage destination, the itinerary will concern Fara Gera d’Adda, Bariano, Cortenuova and other welcoming agricultural towns: small centres that have had an illustrious past and parts of which are still visible today.
Altimetria della ciclovia Laghi Sud
 From the passageway turn left, be careful as you will be travelling against the traffic for fifty metres until you reach via Castello on the left, take this road along the side of the parish to reach piazza Roma. Continue until you reach via Ponti, take this on the left until you reach the entrance to the Linificio Cotonificio Nazionale. Here turn right into via Dante until the stop sign, turn left and immediately right into via Trieste then continue straight on along via Garibaldi. At the stop sign turn right into via Europa and continue along this road to the end of the residential area. Take via Treviglio on the left, through the fields, to the large country hamlet at Sant’Andrea. Continue along this road that skirts around the group of farm houses until you reach a small bridge crossing the Vailata stream. Now take the left turn on the sand road that follows the canal to a barrier, cross this to return to the tarred road and take the tarred road towards the inhabited areas of Geromina.
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The “fara”, basic unit of Lombard organisation
The “fara”, nucleus of the Lombard military and social structure, consisted of the gathering of a group of families who also had military functions during the migrations that brought the Lombards to Italy. Once here the “fare” still maintained their temporary nature for a while and then developed into permanent settlements. The places where they settled often became permanent inhabited centres traces of which can still be found in the place names. |
Passing in front of the unusual Villa Campagnola, continue to the centre of Geromina, a district of Treviglio, to the stop sign near the church. Turn right in via Canonica, onto the cycle path beside the road. Pass below the railway line and follow the road on the left to the traffic lights, cross over to the opposite side of the road where the cycle path begins again. At the end turn right along a reserved passageway, and then straight on along via Tasso where, after a short distance, the cycle and walking path resumes, take this until you reach viale Cesare Battisti, turn left into this road. At the traffic lights continue along viale Cavour until you reach piazza Cameroni.
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Villa Campagnola at Geromina
The district was established at the will of a fabric merchant, who named it after his wife Geromina Marzio and structured the village like a model industrial village. When the company closed, in the XXth century, the warehouses were divided into smaller companies while the only building of the residential complex that survived is villa Campagnola, an interesting building with porticos and loggias. |
 From piazza Cameroni turn right into via XXIV Maggio along the cycle path, go around the traffic circle, and continue along via Pasteur towards the railway underpass. Keep on the cycle path from here, after passing the hospital and school campus the path will at times move away from the main road, until it reaches Caravaggio.
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The parchment in the Caravaggio Shrine
On 27 April 1599 Cesare Speciano, bishop of Cremona, had an official document drawn up, which copied the anonymous text of a parchment that for centuries was on show in the main vestry of the shrine; the ancient document recorded in detail the miraculous event that occurred on 26 May 1432 outside the residential area of Caravaggio, when, on the road leading to Misano the young Giannetta, all intent on gathering straw for her animals, saw a “Beautiful and admirable lady”: The Virgin Mary. |
Leaving Caravaggio take the reserved cycle path on the right, along via Europa Unita to the traffic light at the crossroad with Viale Papa Giovanni XXIII. Then take the cycle path on the opposite side of the road and continue to the traffic circle where you take Via Francesco Sforza, on the mixed road. At the stop sign turn right into via Guglielmo Oberdan for a few hundred metres, to the reserved cycle path and then continue on the reserved path to the centre of Fornovo San Giovanni.
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The springs
The spring is a source of freshwater that emerges from subterranean bed originating in the northern areas of the Paduan plain.The water emerges at a constant temperature between 10 and 12 degrees, into what is defined as the head of the spring, and is then distributed into the socalled staff, for use in irrigation. Some rivers also arise from springs, like the Tormo, which crosses part of the Bergamo area and flows into the Adda near Lodi. |
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