Northern Italy Day 1: Bergamo

 We landed in Milan (Linate) around 10am, took a  bus from the airport (right outside baggage claim, €7 per person) to the central Milan train station, where we got on a local one-hour train to Bergamo (€6; runs every half hour or so, the left side was slightly more scenic than the right side) -- which was annoyingly covered in graffiti, as many trains in Italy seem to be.  I had booked an AirBNB-type place near the train station so we could walk with our carry-on bags.  

Bergamo is split into two parts:  the high town (Città Alta, elided into "Cheat'alta") and low town. The latter is newer and larger, while the former is medieval and extremely quaint. There is a funicular between the two parts, and then a second funicular to go further up. We stayed in the low town for affordability, but spent most of our time in the high town - so staying there would have been more expedient. 

Right out front of the train station is a bus station, where you can buy a 24-hour unlimited Bergamo bus/funicular pass for approximately €4 (also available in various stores around the city, but the bus station seemed to be the easiest). I highly recommend this! 

After checking into our room and dropping off our bags, we headed to Porta Nuova and wandered around for some pictures, then on to the Funicolare Città Alta. There was a line but it moved pretty fast, as they really pack people into the funicular.

Once we got to the top, we headed to the right towards the Rocca di Bergamo (fortress) for some more pictures. 

We then crossed across the town to the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore (Capella Colleoni), which cost about €6 to enter but was totally worth it! 

After walking around the plaza a bit, we then headed to the second funicular (S. Viglio Funicular), which was conveniently located next to a locally-famous gelato spot that allegedly invented stracciatella gelato (vanilla with little bits of chocolate in it), so we stopped for a gelato snack on the way to the funicular.  We walked around a bit after getting off the second funicular; there is apparently another castle here but we didn't have time to go tour it.   

We grabbed the next funicular back to Città Alta, where I had made dinner reservations at Il Circolino di Città Alta, which is apparently in a former prison and has a large outdoor area with tables.  We had a cheese plate, pasta, and pizza - all of which was very good!  After dinner, we took the funicular back down to the lower part of the city and headed back to our room for the night. 

Bottom line: Bergamo - and Città Alta in particular - was actually one of the surprise highlights of the trip - I definitely recommend an afternoon and evening here!