Visiting Bergamo, Italy
Most people have been to Milan or have wanted to go. And when searching for cheap flights to get there, you may have come across Ryanair's flight to “Milan Bergamo”. While it is perfectly understandable and handy to fly to this airport instead of Milan Malpensa, I have to recommend you don’t book that shuttle from the airport to Milan and instead, stay in Bergamo for a while.
Don’t worry, you can catch a train straight to Milan from Bergamo!
Getting to Bergamo
I usually fly from Edinburgh (EDI) to Milan Bergamo (BGY). If you plan ahead by a few months you can often grab these flights for less than £30. In summer of course prices rise, but if you book early enough there is always a great deal!
From the airport you can jump into a taxi for less than €20 but I’d recommend just using the local buses. These come around ever 10-15 minutes and take you straight into Bergamo city centre in less than 20 minutes. Tickets for these buses will only cost a couple of euros.
Once you arrive in Bergamo there are plenty of hotels differing in price range, modernity and location. If you’d like to stay in Bergamos Citta Alta, I can recommend Airbnb. Stunning apartments and authentic buildings and stunning cave like cellars are available for under £80 a night, modern apartments and hotels are even cheaper, there’s always a good deal to be found.
About Bergamo
Located just over a 1 hour drive from Milan, Bergamo is the perfect small city to visit if you are in the Lombardy region. Bergamo has a population of around 120,000 and compared to Milan which has a population of 1.32 Million, Bergamo is home to a much greater sense of calm. Perhaps a place to come and wind down, after a busy day in Milan.
Bergamo is split into two main parts of the city. The city centre stretches around the main road at the end of which you find the second, or perhaps actually the first part of the city: Bergamo’s Citta Alta or old town. The old town is beautifully preserved and due to its hight, serves stunning views of Bergamo and surrounding towns.
View from Citta Alta.
View from city centre onto Citta Alta.
Things to do
Bergamo city centre and Citta Alta are both perfect for shopping, eating and having some drinks, not to mention the obvious sights to see in an Italian city where the architecture is beautiful. While it is fast paced in the city centre, it is still much more relaxed than Milan and of course much smaller, making it easy to walk wherever you fancy.
Citta Alta offers the most scenic views, streets, buildings and of course there are more churches than you can count. Most are free to enter and while some do ask for donations or have set prices, these usually remain way below 10 €. Even if you are not religious or take no interest, you must see these churches. Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo’s Citta Alta was built in approximately 1133. If you are travelling during hotter months, make sure you are prepared to cover up when entering churches in Italy as modest clothing is mandatory, no short shorts or skirts, exposed shoulders or backs etc. Some larger churches and cathedrals will have single-use paper coverups for sale.
When visiting Citta Alta, make sure you take at least one journey (up or down) via Funicular. The Funicular takes no longer than 5 minutes and shows you not only the views over Bergamo, but also gives you a taste of how locals used to travel to and from. There are several busses all day which can take you up and back down for no more than a couple of Euros.
Food
The food is of course amazing, like everywhere else in Italy. If like me, you visit Bergamo as the last stop on your trip after spending a long time in Italy, I can understand you might be fancying something… less Italian. Bergamo has brilliant options and a vast selection of restaurants and take aways from American style fast food to Chinese, Japanese, German food and more.
If you cannot get enough of the Italian food, you’ll also be well taken care of. Bergamo’s Citta Alta has many lovely options serving authentic, northern Italian cuisine. There are plenty of cafes and takeaway options if you’re feeling peckish. There is one bakery in the old town I always go back to. “Il Fornaio” is a must, there is a huge selection of bread and pizza style baked dishes. You pay for a “slab” type size of topped bread or topped pizza which can comfortably feed 4, and the pricing is as always in Italy, more than fair.
If you are looking for an authentic Pizzeria in the city centre I have to recommend “La Bruschetta” on Via Guglielmo D'Alzano. I find myself going back and have been 3 times now. There is outdoor seating for sunny nights and the inside is almost like a dark, cosy wine cellar. Nowhere comes quite as close to Italian authenticity as this place. The food of course is hearty, home cooked Italian goodness and the menu does not fall short in terms of choice.
Traveling on
Having mentioned and explored Bergamo itself, this might be the second greatest selling point for me and many others who visit Bergamo. Bergamo lies in the centre of northern Italy, which makes this the perfect city to travel to and also from.
Bergamo has amazing train links and within an hour you can travel to your next city break such as Milan or Brescia. On top of this you can make it to Lake Iseo or Lake Garda to the right of the country and of course, Lake Como which gains popularity every day. Train travel in Italy is like everything else, surprisingly cheap. Most train tickets cost under €10 return.
If you’d like to see Milan, but can’t quite decide where to stay and the prices are way too high, take the Ryanair flight to Bergamo, and stay there instead, you can take several day trips to Milan and surrounding cities!
