Bergamo Transportation

We were pressed for time so we took the shortest possible way of getting to the Lake Como - which was a train from Bergamo to Lecco and then change for train to Varenna.

Don't do what we did and miss the stop for Varenna - we got off at the next stop Bellano and there was no train going in the other direction for 2 hrs. I recommend you skip Bellano (sorry Bellano!) and get off at the RIGHT stop and the journey should not take more that 1h30.

When you get to Varenna you can take any of a number of ferry to other towns on the lake, depending on how much time you have. If the weather is nice and you have a few hours to spare, DO IT!

Its well worth the journey .....

Irish budget airline Ryanair fly from London Stansted and Luton airports to Bergamo. Look out for bargains we only paid £2 before tax to get there and back! The flight is around 90 minutes. They advertise that the flight is to Milan, another 1/2 hour by bus, but we found that Bergamo is well worth a visit too!

It's plenty of busses to go around Bergamo, to Milan or just to the various paeselli nearby.
The bus station is closed to the train one and there will be a new one soon.A recent italian movie(lo scippo) describes the lifes going on around the old bus stations lifes of drug addicts, prostitutes, transvestites, homeless, taxi drivers and.......donne in corriera!

The funicular of Bergamo links Bergamo Bassa with Bergamo Alta in only 5 minutes. It's the most convenient way to get to the high town, since most of it is closed to motorized traffic. To get to the departure station of the funicular just hop onto bus 1A or 1. Possibly the most convenient place to get the bus is from the station - there's also a parking lot there. You can buy tickets at most newagents or bars in the area.

I liked this picture, which you can find in the leaflet of the funicolari. You can see the entrance and than the tracks up the hill leading to the old city at the top. The only available leaflet that I could read was in German. I wanted to use some of this info and tell you a bit about the history of the funicolari. But speaking Dutch, now reading German and than write it down in English, just got a bit too confusing for me, hahaha, or maybe I am just lazy :-))

A much easier and more fun way to get into the Cita Alta is with the Funicolari. It is very easy to get from the train station to the old city. The bus stops very frequently in front of the station, and brings you to the funiculare. It is only a few minutes by bus. The funiculare brings you up the hill, in the center of the old city. From here just go by foot to explore the historic city center. It is great to walk around in the old narrow streets of Bergamo. Hahaha, much better going here by foot than with the car!

The old city is a maze of small one-way-streets, it took us quite long to find the way to our hotel, which was right in the city centre. Hahaha, we got totally crazy by the signs of "sensa unico" which means "one way street". We were sure the hotel was to the left..... but we weren't allowed to go there, grrrrr, very frustrating. So after driving around the city about twenty times, we started to do some ghost-driving (pssst, please don't tell anyone). Hahaha, when we told Titti what we did she looked at us in amazement.... "you can't go that way!" She said. Yes you can, hahaha, it is just not allowed :-)

The best and quickest way to get there is by hydrofoil. You can also get there by a regular boat service which takes a little longer and a little cheaper.
To get around town, its small enough that you can just enjoy hiking it.