Camerata Cornello, Italy: travel guide to Cornello dei Tasso and the birthplace of the post

Camerata Cornello is a small comune in the province of Bergamo, in Lombardy, set in the Val Brembana about 30 kilometres north of Bergamo. It is famous above all for its frazione of Cornello dei Tasso, one of the officially listed most beautiful villages of Italy and a remarkably preserved medieval hamlet perched on a rocky spur above the river Brembo.

For travellers searching for Camerata Cornello, Cornello dei Tasso, the most beautiful villages of Italy or the origins of the postal system, it offers a perfect step back into the Middle Ages.

Cornello dei Tasso

Reachable only on foot, Cornello dei Tasso owes its name and fame to the Tasso family, who from the 15th and 16th centuries played a fundamental role in creating and running the postal service across Europe, and who were also the ancestors of the poets Bernardo and Torquato Tasso. In the Middle Ages the village was an important market and trading post on the via Mercatorum, the merchants' road linking Bergamo with the Valtellina. When a new valley-floor road, the via Priula, was built in 1592 and bypassed it, Cornello declined and emptied, and so its medieval fabric survived almost untouched.

What to see

The heart of the village is its monumental porticoed street, cobbled and roofed with stone arcades, lined with the shops and stables that once formed its commercial core. A museum dedicated to the Tasso family and the history of the post tells the story of how modern mail began here, while the surrounding Val Brembana offers walking and mountain scenery.

Practical information

Camerata Cornello lies about 30 kilometres north of Bergamo, in the Val Brembana, close to the spa town of San Pellegrino Terme. Cornello dei Tasso is reached on foot by a short path from the village, with car parking near the river.