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Bergamo is one of the most beautiful cities in northern Italy. It consists of an old walled Upper Town (Città Alta) and a more modern Lower Town (Città Bassa). The Venetian defensive walls around Upper Town are a UNESCO World Heritage site.
History
Bergamo was founded by a Celtic tribe called the Cenomani. It became a Roman municipality in 49 BC and later a Lombard duchy. The city was controlled by the Republic of Venice from 1428 to 1797 until Napoleon’s army rolled into town, and was given to the Austrian Empire in 1815. Bergamo was conquered by Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1859 and incorporated into Italy.
Airport
The city is served by Il Caravaggio International Airport (also known as Orio al Serio), which is just a few kilometers outside of town. The airport is also one of three airports serving Milan and is surprisingly the third busiest international airport in Italy. You can take the Orioshuttle to get you from the airport to the city center, Milan, and Monza. A city bus, which is more frequent, can also take you to the railway and bus station in about 15 minutes. Taxis charge a very high amount for the short journey.
Railway Station
The railway station opened in 1854 and is located at the southern edge of Lower Town. It’s about an hour from either Milan or Brescia. If you’re coming from or going to another destination, you’ll most likely change trains at one of those two cities.
Bus Station
The bus station is located across the street from the railway station and has regular service to nearby cities.
Getting Around
When you’re in Lower Town or Upper Town, the city is small enough to get around on foot. Because of this, we never used the city bus system. To get between Lower Town and Upper Town, or Upper Town and San Vigilio, there are funicular railways. The Upper Town Funicular (Funicolare Città Alta) opened in 1887.
Bergam8
We stayed at Bergam8, a small B&B located in a residential building in Lower Town. It was a little strange getting into the building for the first time, having to buzz in to wait for a security code for the keypad, then having to search for the lift to get up to the hotel. Once we got upstairs and checked in, it was fine.
Our room was very large and comfortable and had a nice bathroom. There was a balcony with a privacy wall, and a simple breakfast was included in the price. We enjoyed our stay there.
Caffè del Tasso 1476
For a quick coffee break, we stopped at Caffè del Tasso 1476 on Piazza Vecchia in Upper Town. Marisol had a very thick and sweet cioccolatta (hot chocolate) and I had a latte. It was a nice break from the cold weather. It’s actually a restaurant that apparently has great food but we didn’t try anything.
Il Fornaio
For lunch, we had pizza at Il Fornaio in Upper Town. They have delicious pizza with lots of different varieties. We got a couple of slices and sat upstairs to eat them.
Il Coccio
For dinner, we ate at Il Coccio, which is a small place that serves different dishes daily. You go up to the counter where the host does an excellent job explaining every dish, then you choose a few portions and find a table. Everything is made fresh with ingredients that are in-season.
We wanted to try everything because it all looked amazing, but we settled on sharing about six different portions between the two of us. All of them were delicious, but a few stood out above the rest. The lasagne and cannelloni are both incredible and we really enjoyed the cipolline in agrodolce (sweet and sour baby onions). It was one of our favorite meals on our trip to Italy.
Atalanta
If you’re into sports, you can go see Atalanta, which are the local football team. They play at Stadio Atleti Azzurri d’Italia, which is a small stadium that opened in 1928. Unfortunately, there were no games on the night we stayed in Bergamo.
