Bergamo Alta

We stayed at the Agnello D'Oro a few years ago. It is ideally placed in the old town and is both characterful and comfortable. It also probably falls within your price bracket and has a good restaurant on the ground floor. It might be a somewhat quirky place not to all American tastes and decoration is a bit old style but we loved it. Have a look at the Trip Advisor comments to get a feel of people's reactions. I would say that Bergamo is a wonderful city and the food very robust.

Bergamo is really enjoyable. We stayed at Casa Mario Lupo last year and can't recommend it highly enough. It's a two room B&B right next to the main town square. (The rooms are more like apartments than just rooms. Ours was huge and had a small kitchen.) The owner and his charming family live downstairs. (His little boy is just adorable.)

Bergamo is a gem undiscovered by American tourists. We were there for three nights and the only English we heard was not from Americans. I doubt Bergamo will ever make it into a Rick Steves book because it doesn't have any major tourist attraction other than the town itself. But it's a great place to go if you're more interested in northern Italian culture than you are in ticking things off a checklist.

Here are some photos I took while we were there, if you're curious: Bergamo in May 2013

Nice photoset, Michael. Buon viaggio!