Bergamo is a very old city. Traces of a protohistoric settlement dating from between the sixth and fifth centuries B C have been found on the hill where the city was then located. It seems probable that the location was chosen because of its position dominating the edge of the Po valley and plain of Lombardy, between the river Brembo and the Serio, with access along the valleys to the range of the Orobic Alps, which ha benn populated since Paleolithic times. It is thanks to these first inhabitants that Bergamo has acquired the characteristics which distinguish it from all the other towns in Lombardy and make it one of the most exceptional cities in Italy: its location half on the hill and half on the plain. The root of the world Bergamo is berg meaning hill or home on the hill and it is in fact the old city that stands out in the distance as the visitor approaches from the plain. The city comes upon you unexpectedly with its fantastic skyline of towers, church steeples and cupolas silhouetted against the background of the Alps. The heart of the old town is Piazza Vecchia, one of the most beautiful squares in Italy with historic buildings and monuments dominated by the huge civic tower. In the effects of light and shade under the portico beneath the Palazzo della Ragione, the marblework on the porch of the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore stands out clearly, together with the Colleoni chapel, Amadeo's masterpiece of Lombard Renaissance art. Bergamos's monuments bear witness to the city's close links with Venice, which for four centuries shared its history, art and culture. In the 16th century it was the Republic of Venice which gave the Bergamasque people the imposting circle of walls enclosing the upper city, separating it completely from the rest of the surrounding area. The noble palaces, the splendid collection of paintings in the Carrara Gallery, the ancient frescoes, sumptuous baroque art and buildings linked to the memory of Gaetano Donizetti, narrate a past which the city has undertaken to preserve and which is a constant pleasure to the eye in modern times. As a backdrop to the city, the hills form the heart of a regional park, with villas, monasteries and the remains of medieval fortifications set in the beauty of the countryside. The old boroughs, wendind their way down the hillside from the old city to the plain, were the original highways linking Bergamo with the outside world. They extend down to the plain where canals were once the main source of wealth with factories and workshops built along their banks. Then trading gradually developed, centred around a fair dating back to medieval times. It extended over a considerable area of the town and at the beginning ot the twentieth century it was on this site that the new city centre was constructed.