Bergamo is located in Lombardy, in the northern part of Italy, just at the foothills of the Alps Mountain range.The Lombardy region of Italy is known to first have been inhabited by Celtic people in the 5th century BC. But around the 3rd century BC, Gallic people took over as Rome conquered the Celts to take over the region and claim it their own. It was then a part of the Roman province known as Cisalpine Gaul.

The region was not heavily protected by the Romans however and underwent many invasions. The Lombard Kindgom took over the region, making it the center of their kingdom. The Lombards were actually a group of ancient Germanic peoples, whose culture differed from that of the Romans. The Lombards were primarily pagans while the Romans had been largely Catholics since the 4th century. 

But the Lombards were to be overtaken as well, this time it was Charlemagne who took over the region on his quest to unite Western Europe and clear the air of the pagan and Catholic differences. He was largely successful and had all of Western Europe under his control.

Later, Bergamo became actually an independent commune during the 12th century. But in the 14th century, when Milan was the strongest city in the Lombardy region, it had to give up Bergamo to the ruling of the Visconti.  The Bergamo area was then conquered by the Republic of Venice, and remained under its rule until the demise of the Most Serene Republic of Venice in 1797.  Bergamo became then part of the kingdom of Lombardy and Veneto, attached to the Austrian Empire (with a brief interruption during the Napoleonic era), and was finally annexed by the Kingdom of Sardinia and Savoy (soon to become Kingdom of Italy) in 1859.