1st time in Italy: Verona & lake Garda from Bergamo?

How many nights do you actually have on the ground in Italy? Looks like just 2?
Will you be dealing with jet lag issues on arrival?

Verona is lovely and can easily use a few nights
Bergamo Alto is also worth a day

Genoa too far if you only have a short time
Milan ok but not as lovely as Verona

Hi Cristine,
Yes, it's just 2 nights and about one full day and a half. Basically a quick weekend getaway to test what Italy feels like. :)
I know it won't be enough perhaps but this is just a probing first trip. IF we like it we'll come back for more.
We're flying in from Sofia, not much of jet lag.

It would have been 3 nights and a later flight back to maximize our time, but we had to change our flights from Bari as we decided Verona could be a better introduction to Italy. 3 nights would have been enough to see Bari, Matera, Polignano a Mare, Alberobello, Monopoli. Anyway, the flight to Bergamo on Friday was too early and I will be at work that day so not possible for us (the one to Bari was in the evening at like 8 PM).

I edited my OP as I feel Genoa is indeed too far way & doesn't look as spectacular as other coastal cities in Italy.
Besides that, we saw photos of Lake Garda and some parts of it look so sea-like that if we have time we will pay a visit to it from Verona. We loved Balaton and Lake Neusiedl very much, easily came our top 2 lakes in Europe due to feeling like seas. Garda is slightly larger than Neusiedl and when we saw the photos some of its shores look like sea-like so it might become part of our top 3. :)

We'll either skip Milan completely or just waste no more than 30-40 min there tops, to be honest just the Duomo and La Scala opera seem interesting to us. The Duomo in particular looks totally gorgeous and we feel it would be a shame to be that close to it and not see it in person. Not crazy about the people begging or selling junk there but I guess there must be a reason why so many people visit Milan.

Hope Verona + optionally Garda + Milan and a brief look around in Bergamo probably looks more manageable! We're the go go go type of travelers (3 nights in Athens and Bucharest were one night too many). Maybe we'll manage using trains or Flixbuses. I just want to make sure if Milan is worth skipping or not and whether we should use buses or trains between Bergamo and Verona; Verona and Garda; Verona and Bergamo or Milan and ofc bw Bergamo and Milan?

If you’re wanting to go, go, go, then I would take the train to Venice, spend the day there & sleep there overnight near San Marco. Be sure to spend time in San Marco piazza in the evening. Take the train the next morning to Verona & head to Bergamo Citta Alta by late afternoon.

Since 2 nights is only one full day I think Verona and the lake is probably enough to fit into a weekend but you seem determined to do as much as you can.

Verona is a chic, mostly pedestrian, cafe culture like city the bend of the river centered around the old Roman core that feels smaller (to the tourist) than it's size would suggest. It has an intact Roman Arena, Theater which are still used for music with music and opera being a big part of the city's summer schedule. If you like modern art check out the small Palazzo Maffei Casa Museo which mixes ancient and modern art, a palazzo and rooftop tour all into one place overlooking piazza Erbe and is underadvertised. I think Piazza Erbe (looking past the market stands) is one of the prettiest piazzas in Italy. Verona has the 'elegant decay' feeling with faded murals on medieval buildings that the Veneto does so well.

Peschiera del Garda on lower Lake Garda is 12 minutes away from Verona by train but the lower lakes are as touristy in season as easy train access can make them. You can take a bus from Verona train station or Peschiera del Garda to smaller destinations on the eastern side of the lake - check out Malcesine - for a quieter, small town lake experience.

With exception of Lake Garda the train is the easiest and generally fastest way to move around Italy. Certainly between big cities - Verona is 1:20 by fast train from Verona while the bus or driving is over 2 hours. Milan is a big busy city and unless you're flying out of there I wouldn't bother trying to do a flying visit unless big industrious cities are you area of interest.

I guess my only caveat is that while checking to "see what Italy is like" is that most major Italian cities feel very different from one another. Verona is very different from Florence which is different from Bologna which is different from Venice which is unlike anything in the world.

Have a great trip,
=Tod

Thanks to both for your replies!
We feel that the long train/bus ride from Bergamo airport to Venice won't leave us enough time to do Venice justice, it seems to take about 3+ hours and that's on top of our 2 hour flight. We both hate flying and one of us has chronic fatigue so we might be already fatigued on arrival.

That's why maybe we better leave Venice for when we can spend a few more days?
We talked about it and we're now of the opinion it's best to stay both nights at a hotel in Bergamo itself and probably do a quick visit to the Duomo in Milan in the afternoon of our arrival day. Then do Verona + Garda on our only full day, getting back to Bergamo just for dinner and the night before our departure flight. This way it would be fun enough and more relaxed than. I really wish we could visit Venice but it's just too far away even by high-speed rail.

To be fair all this planning and decision making what to skip is really taking the excitement of self-organized traveling out for us. If only we could travel like in the old old days - no prior hotel reservations and to go to whatever city/town we feel like on the spur. We prefer organized group trips because someone else is doing the itinerary/bookings and they try to cram in as many things as possible and you don't have to think about train/bus tickets. Cramming as many things on your own seems far more stressful, hence why but we couldn't get days off in May.

I don't know how much you like actual travelling, but given your actual time on the ground, I would consider either taking the train to Peschiera at the bottom of Lake Garda, or staying in Bergamo Alto (charming) with your quick trip into Milan.
For me, the extra travelling time out of the limited land time means save Verona and Venice for next time!