Understand
Bergamo is a pretty town of some 120,000 people nestling in the foothills of the Alps. Widely acclaimed as a city of rare beauty, Bergamo is famous for its wealth of artistic treasures and enchanting medieval atmosphere. It is a real life tale of two cities: “Città Bassa”, the busy and modern lower city, and "Città Alta", the upper city with its rich heritage of art and history.
Get in
By plane
Bergamo is the location of the Orio al Serio International Airport (BGY) (Phone number: +39035326323), an airport oriented around low-cost airlines. Buses to the city are € 1.25 per trip. You can find schedules and route maps on the site of the local mass transit authority. Cabs will take about 15mins and cost around €15.
Note that busses can be both unreliable and not punctual. As of 2006 June the airport is being partly rebuilt and this leads to delays of around 10 minutes for those that are picking up or returning hire cars due to the wait for the hire car shuttle bus.
By train
Regular trains to Milan, Lecco and Brescia, on to Verona and Venice. You can check schedules and fares on the website of the Italian Railways. There is no left luggage office at the train station only at the airport.
By bus
Regular buses to Milan. You can check schedules and fares on the website of Autostradale. The trip takes approximately one hour, depending on traffic conditions.
Get around
The town is not large, and most of the sights can be seen comfortably on foot. To get from the CittĂ Bassa up to the CittĂ Alta can be quite tiring on foot, though, due to the steep and winding streets, but there is a funicolare (a kind of tram) linking the two parts of the town. You can see a map of bus routes, schedules and fares on the website of the local mass transit authority (in Italian).
See
Do
