Bergamo is two cities in one: a modern lower town of boulevards, offices and shopping streets spread across the Lombard plain, and above it, on a steep spur of the foothills, the Citta Alta, a walled medieval city of cobbled lanes, towers and piazzas. The upper city is the point of this stop, a place to finish a long day and walk around while the stone cools. The city as a whole has about 114,000 people, and Orio al Serio, home of Milan's third airport, is just to the south.
For a rider, the old town is a place to be careful. The upper city is a restricted traffic zone, with limited access for vehicles, so most visitors leave the bike in a car park in the lower town and ride the funicular up the hill, which is a pleasure in its own right. The lower city is busy, with streams of traffic and plenty of fuel stations, and the approach from Milan is by fast roads across a flat, built-up plain, with the Alps appearing on a clear day as a pale line on the north. Early evening is wonderful in the upper town, when the stone glows and the crowds thin out.
The walls are the most impressive thing. Venice ruled Bergamo for more than three centuries, and its engineers built the great ring of ramparts in the sixteenth century to protect the city's border, work so fine that they are now part of a UNESCO World Heritage listing of Venetian defensive works. The city has a rich cultural life: the composer Gaetano Donizetti was born here, and the Colleoni Chapel, a Renaissance gem on the main square, is dazzling with its coloured marble. Piazza Vecchia, the heart of the upper city, is often called one of the loveliest squares in Italy, and a cafe table there is a good place to end a ride.
Food is important. Polenta is the staple of the region, served with game, mushrooms or cheese, and the local pasta, casoncelli, is stuffed with meat and topped with butter and sage. Polenta e osei, a sweet cake decorated with marzipan birds, is the city's signature dessert. A glass of local red goes with all of it.
The surrounding hills, the Bergamo Alps, rise just to the north, which makes this a natural launch point for the Dolomite road. Book a hotel in the lower town if you want easy parking, and carry a lock.