Bergamo: The Quintessential Italian Town

They chose Bergamo as their their wedding location, and after a year of planning my visit, we still had yet to find any friends familiar with this destination.  However, who doesn’t want an excuse to visit Italy?!  We booked our flights and headed to Bergamo in June!

After learning more about the city, it seems to be more of a native Italian tourist destination, and hasn’t become too popular with foreigners yet.  We only heard American accents when we were around the wedding party – we were truly immersed in authentic Italian culture!

Unlike Rome, there isn’t an extensive list of roman ruins, museums or other tourist attractions to see. This is about R&R, taking in the culture, and enjoying the town.  The main square, Piazza Vecchio, has a large cathedral, and the interior design is absolutely mind blowing.  We later visited St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, and honestly this was similar in terms of the art and detail.  The size of the Bergamo cathedral was much smaller, but it wasn’t full of tourists and there wasn’t a line to get in, so we actually enjoyed it just as much.  Again, this is a true authentic Italian town.

The architecture is beautiful, so we loved walking the streets, shopping in the little boutiques and food stores, and enjoying the mountain views from the upper city. Also, throughout the town at random locations, you will find pianos that say “play me”. We saw people of all ages playing to their heart’s desire.  Several students brought their music sheets and practiced while we ate lunch. It was magical.

We decided to turn the wedding into an 8-day road trip around Northern/Central Italy, starting with the wedding.  Getting to Bergamo was much easier than we expected.  We flew into Milan (FCO) and rented a car for our road trip.  We were pleasantly surprised by how easy the drive was, and we arrived in Bergamo within 45 minutes.  Milan has a couple airports, so make sure you’re choosing the closer ones before you book.  Also, we had friends fly into Zurich, which is a great option if you want to visit Switzerland too.

Bergamo is a very old city, and you want to make sure you stay in Citta Alta, the upper city.  The roads are tiny, and we actually thought we were driving on a pedestrian road several times – so you can imagine how charming this place is!  We were relieved when we arrived at our AirBNB, parked the car, and didn’t get in it again for the weekend.  Parking was free where we stayed, which seems to be common in the city.  Everything is close walking distance, so staying anywhere in the upper city will be perfect location.  Here are a few suggestions:

AirBNB in the Citta Alta (upper town) – There were lots of options and this is what we used.

Since this isn’t your typical American tourist city, the prices did not seem inflated.  We were shocked by how affordable a meal of truffle pasta with Chianti Classico could be.  I think 2-3 nights would be the perfect visit.

~2 hours from Bergamo: Lake Como, Milan, and Verona

~4 hours from Bergamo: Cinque Terre, Venice, and Zurich