Casnigo is at an altitude of 514 metres on a high plain that dominates a long tract of the left bank of the River Serio at about 23 kilometres from Bergamo. Even today, the villagers call this plateau Agher, from ager, the Latin word for field, country, and is an alluvial deposit that was intensely cultivated in the past for its fertility, but today is partly occupied by the chemical and textile industries. The Colle Bondo hamlet, which is on the other side of the valley at between 800 and 1,100 metres, still maintains its mainly agricultural traditions today. The main hamlet of Serio, which hosts important factories, is on the valley floor on the bank of the river of the same name at an altitude of around 400 metres.

Cazzano stretches from the slopes of Mount Farno, where there is the residential area, to the Leffe antenna location. Once, the village’s land extended as far as the foot of Mount Bue, bordering with lower Cene Valle Rossa. That bulge was established in the early 17th century when, after the plague, it was decided to reorganise the borders of the Val Gandino municipalities, giving Cazzano access to water not only in the Romna stream beneath the residential area, but also the stream Doppia in Valle Rossa. This was because the Romna was already being used by the first factories in Gandino, which produced the esteemed coarse Bergamascan cloth.

A walk in the village centre is the moment in which to admire a succession of buildings, churches and towers, among them the 14th century Palazzo del Vicario, now the municipal building in Piazza Vittorio Veneto, with its traditional portico construction of the Lombardy court of justice, and the Salone della Valle. There are also many old manor houses in the area that once belonged to the wool manufacturers’ families, who made Gandino famous throughout Europe from the 15th to the 18th centuries. Not far away is the Baroque Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta, one of the major monuments of the Province of Bergamo. The San Mauro church is annexed to the Orsoline Convent and hosts a precious relic: the habit of S. Padre Pio da Pietrelcina, which is displayed in the Basilica each year on 23 September in memory of the saint, for popular veneration.

The cloths, the sacred drapes, the lace, the gold and silver that constitute the wealth of the Basilica, are kept in the nearby Museo di Arte Sacra, which is one of the most important of its kind in Europe. Two particular sections are devoted to textile art and nativity scenes. Each year, Gandino holds prestigious events such as high level concerts at the Basilica, recreation including the Gustar Gandino (Taste Gandino), a food and wine walk and the festivals of the hamlets Cirano, Barzizza and Mount Farno.

The village centre offers interesting home prospects of prestigious buildings to be restored and enhanced, while the peripheral zone has more modern accommodation in an especially pleasant panoramic environment.

Leffe has a population of about 4,880 and is in the Province of Bergamo on the eastern side of the Val Gandino, a turn-off from the Val Seriana and is 22 kilometres from Bergamo city. The village has provided numerous fossil sites, found in the lignite mines in the Fifties that date back to times way before man made his first appearance: the bones of elephas meridionalis, rhinocerous lepthorinus and Bos are now kept in the Bergamo Museum of Natural Science and the natural history museum in Milan.

The village’s many historic buildings are almost a testimony to the level of wealth of the inhabitants even many centuries ago, due to wool production. The most significant are the 16th century Palazzo Pezzoli, the late Renaissance Palazzo Galizzi and Palazzo Mosconi with the domination of the Serenissima. The San Michele parish church is of considerable artistic note; built in the 18th century, it contains works by Andrea Fantoni including his venerable Madonna Addolorata.

Other churches include the Sanctuary of San Rocco in the hamlet of the same name and the church of San Martino, the ex-parish church in which can be found important paintings by Pombioli depicting the glorification of the Madonna, as well as others by A. Carra and Fiorini. The other smaller churches are at Mount Croce that previously belonged to Peia, the Church of S. Antonio at the refuge, the Chapel of Bozzola in the same area, where over 5,000 relics of saints are kept, and the church at the village’s old people’s home.

The village has a rich and ancient history: in fact, it seems the area was inhabited during the Roman era, when many slaves were brought here to work in the nearby iron ore mines. Once they had served their time, they were allowed to stay and cultivate the land. So the name comes from the Latin Pilia or Pèa in dialect.

The art of working with wool has taken place in the village since medieval times, so that, to describe the kind of fabric produced here, which was much prized, the name Peina was coined. There are ruins from medieval times in Peia Alta, including an ancient citadel which is now demolished and originally built for defensive purposes. The village remained under the administration of nearby Gandino until 1542, when all the small areas were united to make up Peia. The odd thing about those small zones is that they were given the names of the people who lived in them: Cà Bertocchi, Cà Zenucchi, Cà Rottigni and Cà Bosio.

There are a number of churches spread across the municipality: the main one is, undoubtedly, the Parish Church of San Antonio da Padova, which goes back to the 15th century, and was enlarged three centuries later. The church has an octagonal choir stall as well as works by Cavagna, Francesca Zucco and P. Loverini. The balustrade of 1771 and the 1775 urn of San Antonio were created by sculptor Giuseppe Manni of Gazzaniga. Among the other sacred buildings worth mentioning are the Chapel of Santa Elisabetta, which stands outside the residential area on the path leading to Val Cavallina and Malga Lunga, the Madonna delle Grazie Sanctuary and the San Rocco church.

A population of 580, the village is at an altitude of around 600 metres in the Province of Bergamo, not far from Lake Endine, and is at the foot of Mounts Pler and Croce at the border between the Cavallina and Seriana valleys.

Its centre mostly retains the structure of centuries ago, with the houses built of cobble stones and elements of brick-laying typical of medieval fortification. And it was in medieval times that the residential zone started to develop and take on its current appearance due to the input of the Suardi family, who in those days owned a large part of the Valle Cavallina, a situation that remained unchanged until the arrival of the Republic of Venice. A new epoch began with the Serenissima in which the village was relegated to a minor role in the valley context, because the noble family lost power. There were also periods in which Bianzano lost its administrative autonomy, being added first to Ranzanico at the end of the 18th century and then Monasterolo at the beginning of the 19th.

The municipality was rebuilt with the establishment of the Lombardy-Veneto reign, only to be incorporated with Spinone in 1927. It was not until 11 April 1955 that it was definitively returned to being an independent municipality. As with the neighbouring municipalities, in recent years the village has seen substantial tourist-residential development, mainly concentrated in the area above the centre, not far from Gaverina Terme.