Tradition has it that when Bartolomeo Colleoni left the castle of Solza, where he was born, he was between 14 and 15 years old.
Little more than a boy even for those times, and there was nothing to suggest that he was destined to become one of the most famous condottieri of the 15th century.
And the castle itself today appears little in its modest 14th-century layout.
Yet it is worth reaching the small village of Solza, not far from the Adda River, to begin a journey through places and history to learn about the castles that dot the Bergamo plain.
Two great powers opposed each other for a long time on this borderland: the Duchy of Milan and the Republic of Venice.