Gandino gave its name to its valley, and not the other way round: the val Gandino is called so because of the village. The name comes from a Celtic root, Gand-, meaning steep, stony and crumbling ground — the same root found in Gandellino, Gandosso and Ganda — and it probably referred to the scree of the place called Groaro. Celtic too are the names of the two hamlets: Barzizza from a root meaning a height, Cirano from the turkey oak, the tree.
The village lies at the end of a plateau shut in by ridges, and the highest point of its territory is the Pizzo Formico, at 1636 metres. Those mountains have been lived in for a very long time: below the Formico, at the place called Campo d'Avene, flints worked in the upper Palaeolithic have come to light. A legend has it that the druids performed their rites at the Coren d'altar, but it has no foundation whatever. The Togna, the stream that comes down from Cirano, carried the outflow of the cesspits until the end of the twentieth century, and in the village they called it Merdarolo.
Risotto alla Milanese
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Next up: Saints Pontian, Flavian, Quirinus and Valentine, patrons of the Saint Joseph Fair, Sunday 4 July
Nearest airport: Bergamo Orio al Serio, 22 km away
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📅 Every year, on the first Sunday of July; the fourth Sunday of Lent brings the Saint Joseph Fair
Gandino celebrates Saints Pontian, Flavian, Quirinus of Neuss and Valentine on the first Sunday of July. On the fourth Sunday of Lent, the Saint Joseph Fair is held, known locally as «la féra dé palpacüi».
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The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Gandino, but an easy day trip away.
