Reminiscing Dottoressa Montessori and Contessa Agliardi in Bergamo

(Part II of a series on Reminiscing my training in Maria Montessori’s country)

Right after the International Montessori Congress in Perugia, I decided to visit Bergamo. Beside it is Brescia, where my niece Mary Jo Gervasone resides. She is married to Luca, a young Italian businessman. The Gervasones own a steel foundry that provides parts for Fiat vehicles. Their close friend, Contessa Camilla was excited that I trained at Bergamo Montessori Center and have a large Montessori enterprise in Manila. She insisted that I meet the Agliardis who established the Bergamo Montessori Center with Dottoressa Montessori herself. The late Miriam Gallarti Scotti Agliardi had passed away in the ’50s about the same time as Dr. Maria Montessori but the contessa would like me to meet her son, Count Gian Paolo.

Sombreno Da Paladina in Bergamo

With her white Fiat numero uno, Mary Jo was raring to drive us anywhere. Even her driving skills, through the beautiful autostrada is so Italian - sleek, neat and fast.

Soon a lunch date was arranged by the Countess with Dottore Gian Paolo Agliardi and his wife Immacolata, who are the benefactors of the Montessori International Training Center of Bergamo.

Dr. Montessori herself would have described Countess Immacolata’s “Mathematical Mind” for giving such clear directions to reach the family estate in Sombreno. Otherwise the drive would have been quite complicated. Along the Brescia-Bergamo autostrada was a sign “Paladina” directing us to turn right off the highway until we reached a pretty village where a “senso unico,” or one way road led us to a lovely church vicinity. We reached a courtyard with a villa, elegantly fenced by espalier – tall trees, about eight of them, whose branches spread out on both sides like outstretched arms.

Orange, yellow and brown autumn leaves covered the grounds and the porch. Here, the lady of the house, Signora Immacolata, in an elegant beige dress with a matching shawl, welcomed us. When I complemented her on the unusual French landscape garden, she smiled and recalled that both she and her husband, Gian Paolo, personally “trained” the trees since they got married 30 years ago. She has also been president of the Bergamo Garden Club. Dottore Agliardi had just arrived then from downtown Bergamo where he kept office at Via Pignolo as chairman of the Bergamo Montessori Foundation. A tall, heavy set handsome gentleman with a sunny disposition, he is also in the cattle farming and the cheese manufacturing business.

The Montessori cultural awareness of the Agliardis

Three huge Renaissance oil paintings glistened on the walls. Count Gian Paolo noted, “They were painted by our ancestor. The Hermitage in St. Petersburg in Russia has also his painting.”

Lunch was in the adjacent small dining room. During autumn, especially in northern Italy, the temperature plunges down to 11 degrees so that just a few rooms of an otherwise 14-room villa are kept warm for the residents and their occasional guests. The uniformed European maid served us stuffed faraone. Wild birds such as pheasants and partridges from the autumn hunt are the delicacies of the season and the typical polenta or corn pudding with wild porcini mushroom and of course, red wine from the family vineyards, are served. Even this cozy dining room was surrounded with paintings.

I could not help but reflect that Gian Paolo and Immacolata’s cultural awareness of plants, arts and history was very Montessori.

Il Templo Di Silencio

Over coffee, after lunch, Count Gian Paolo drew my attention to a group of photographs of Dottoressa Montessori sitting in their garden with his mother, Miriam. “Dotoressa was a frequent house guest of mother. She enjoyed the tranquility and green expanse of the garden. This is where Dr. Montessori’s photo on the face of the 1000 lira note was taken.”

We then went down to visit this garden spot. The Count led us out of his gate across the road, to an old huge yellow palace. In front, acres and acres of green rolling garden estate of the Count’s family. “My brothers who are out of town live here.” A tall stone obelisk stood in front of a small domed temple. The Count indicated, “This is the Templo di Silencio. The lira photograph was taken here.” His Mother, Countess Miriam, inspired by Dr. Montessori’s reverence for silence, had the temple of the silence constructed as a focal point of the estate.

Montessori observed the revolutionary phenomenon other adults won’t accept that infants and preschoolers actually enjoy silence. Similar to the practice of monks and nuns in various religious orders, inner silence allows them to commune with God. From this she developed Il Gioco di Silencio or the Game of Silence, by which preschoolers, even the youngest three year olds enjoy keeping silence without being shouted at.

The lonely Montessori Scuola Materna

Countess Immacolata informed us that her mother-in-law started a Montessori Casa dei bambini or scuola materna, preschool right next door to their estate. Then she also helped establish the larger Montessori school in downtown Bergamo on Vittorio Emmanuel, where the teachers do their practicum. She sadly recounted that four years ago, the Sombreno Casa dei Bambini closed up since very few children enrolled. They were drawn more to the ordinary scuola maternal of the commune (local government).

On our way out to revisit downtown Bergamo, we took pictures of the lovely Montessori preschool house, standing forlorn beside the beautiful church, which the Agliardis also helped build. I prayed that it would open again with state (commune) support like the Montessori preschool at Perugia.

Citta Bassa and Citta Alta

Like Perugia, Bergamo is divided into the upper medieval city, Citta Alta filled with old castles, winding cobblestone lanes and convents and the lower Bergamo or Citta Bassa, its modern outgrowth where industrial business takes place, while Perugia is the capital city of the province of Umbria in the central region of Italy. Bergamo is up north in Lombardy, neighbor to the ski regions of the Dolomites, Aosta Valley and Alto Adige. Sculpted during the Glacier Age, the beautiful lakes of Garda, Iseo, Sirmione, Como and Lugano are scattered about. It is also below Switzerland.

Returning to this city made me retrace the familiar places where I lived and studied for ten months. My padrona Signorina Baraldi was noted for her culinary specialties. I stayed in her pension house right in the center of Citta Basa at Porta Nuova. She was a well-known lady among young Italian female secretaries and office employees who boarded with her on weekdays and went home to the surrounding towns of Lombardy during weekends.

From Porta Nuova Bus 14 or the funiculare hill train would bring me to the top of Citta Alta. The Centro Montessori historic Piazza Citadela then trained an average of 20 international students. From early afternoon to evening, we would take down theoretical and practical lectures with Professore Camillo Grazzini and Signorina Antonia Trezzi. Practice with the Cosmic Curriculum apparata could start in the late morning while we write the apparatus books.

Bergamo, the medieval city that connects Milan to Venice

Bergamo is so rich in medieval history. Its palaces, churches and piazzas relate to the golden age of Venice, an hour train ride away. It is frequented during weekends by the rich Milanese businessmen. Romeo and Juliet’s Verona is half an hour drive, as well as Bologna and Parma, noted for its culinary specialties. Almost every other day, my colleagues and I would walk down the ancient vicolo (alleys) to Piazza Vecchia, similar to Piazza Navona in Rome, which tourists frequent to throw coins at Fontana di Trevi. Otherwise, if we were so tired, we would just step out of the training room into the Piazza Citadela to Piazza San Virgilio, which has breath-taking view of the vineyard region. Locals and tourists gather at Piazza Vecchia to see the Duomo Santa Maria Maggiore and the Capella Colleoni, the ornate mausoleum chapel, dedicated to the Venetian lord Bartolomeo Colleoni and his daughter. Many Italian movie scenes have been filmed here.

Bernard Berenson, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright thought that this piazza is considered the winner of the Italian Piazza Beauty Contest.