B&B Drago 48

The two deluxe rooms have the same fittings and differ in their colours: about 22 square metres with a small hallway, a double bedroom and a bathroom with a 90 by 140 centimetre shower. They have electric shutters, a 27-centimetre hybrid spring mattress with topper, hairdryer, Ethernet and wi-fi and a smart TV.

The Suite del Drago measures about 55 square metres: entrance hall, living room with open kitchen and sofa bed, double bedroom and a larger bathroom, also with a 90 by 140 shower. It has a microwave and a large table; the Booking listing gives it a maximum of four guests and lists balconies, mountain views, a kettle and a tea and coffee maker in the rooms.

The daily rates on the website include breakfast; the Booking listing says it is served in the room. Each room has its own small table and a reserved section of the fridge in the common room, but the website specifies that the common-room kitchen is not available to guests and that, for now, neither is the suite's kitchen.

The Booking listing, on the other hand, lists a shared kitchen: if you plan to cook, ask first. On request the website offers a feather pillow, for a supplement, and the listing mentions packed lunches.

The website sets check-in from 3 to 8 pm and check-out by 11 am; the Booking listing gives arrival from 3 to 7 pm and departure from 8 to 11 am. Arrivals outside these hours must be agreed in advance, and at check-in you need a valid identity document for the registration required by law.

You write through the website's form, to drago48beb@gmail.com or on WhatsApp to 371 3808733, which takes messages only; during the stay guests also have a phone number available 24 hours a day. The booking is confirmed by a written reply, by email or WhatsApp, with the access codes for the property, once the required amount has been paid; the balance is usually paid by bank transfer.

As a rule cancellation is fully refunded if made at least 15 days before arrival, but conditions can vary with the period and the rate. The website offers discounts for stays of at least 7 and at least 28 nights, which cannot be combined, and states that the municipality of Oltre il Colle does not currently charge a tourist tax.

The website publishes the house's coordinates and places it in the centre of the village, about forty minutes by car from Bergamo and just over an hour from Milan. As the crow flies the via Roma playground is about 80 metres away, the Banco BPM branch, the Manenti bar and pastry shop and the A&M Market about 100, the pharmacy 120, the Carrara pizzeria 130 and the La Fonte ice-cream shop 160; the bus line B stop in piazza Tiraboschi, served Monday to Saturday with a change at Zogno, is about 130 metres away. In front of the building, the website notes, there is a public charging point for electric cars.

Via Drago is also the road that climbs by car to Pian della Palla, one of the access points to the Alben cross-country ski trail, about 3 kilometres according to B&B Sotto l'Alben; as the crow flies Pian della Palla is about 770 metres away. On foot from via Drago you climb to the Vandullo district, which Bergamonews describes as a sixteenth-century place at the foot of Monte Alben and which hosted a living nativity in December 2024.

The name comes from the address and from a legend the website tells on its folklore page: a seven-headed, fire-breathing dragon lived on the slopes of Monte Alben and guarded a spring that gave it strength and long life, until the villagers, united, surrounded it with fire and the dragon plunged into the spring, which turned dark, and disappeared.

The website links it to another legend of the village, the dragon of the cloudy spring: a spring whose water was always cloudy, even in fine weather, because a dragon slept at the bottom and, on waking, would make the Ca' Bonaldi district sink into the ground. The website itself presents it as a story probably born to explain an unusual natural phenomenon.