Two nights in Northern Italy -- where to go?

Terri, one location you might consider is Varenna (Lago di Como). It's close to both Milano and Bergamo, and would be a wonderful location to get over jet lag for a few days and to get ready for your course. From Varenna you could take a few day trips to Bellagio, Mennagio or other points on the lake. Who knows, perhaps Clooney will invite you for lunch!!!

Verona would be good also, however I think Opera season is "on" now, so rooms would be more expensive and might be hard to find a vacancy.

The Cinque Terre is a bit farther away, but with careful planning that would probably be possible too?

Given the fact that you'll be needing a room "on short notice", it might be a challenge to find a vacancy in any of the locations?

Good luck with your language course (that's something I'd like to do!)

Happy travels!!!

Part of this depends on when you're going. Lake Como is very convenient to Milan, and it is indeed a wonderful place to recover from jet lag, but I wouldn't want to go during cool or rainy weather.

And FWIW there's lots to do and see in Milan itself.

May I recommend Verona - a beautiful Roman city. Forget the Shakespeare link and look at the real history. Lake Garda is only an hour and a half or so by public bus. It is a pleasant day trip - take a ferry to nowhere in particular and enjoy the relaxation offered. Enjoy your fews days, where ever you choose.

Referring to a previous post, I didn't view either the Cinque Terre or Lago di Como as "romantic getaways" as I was "solo" at both locations. Of course, they're also good places for couples to visit as well.

I found both to be good places to relax and recover from the rigors of travel ("recharge the batteries", as Rick says), and just enjoy "il dolce far niente" (and of course some great Gelato also!).

Cheers!

Lago di Garda has many great towns around it, Desenzano, Peschiera, Salò. Lake Como has already been mentioned, there are some lovely towns around there. You could also consider heading to the moutains, the valleys outside of Bergamo have some nice towns though getting up high without a car will mean some serious communing with a bus schedule.
As you are there on the weekend, any place around the lakes or in the mountains will be busy with people looking to cool off. The cities will be hot, but perhaps less crowded. I would add Mantua and Brescia (the historic center) as neat places to see as well. And of course, take time to go sightseeing in Bergamo..especially Città Alta.

Sirmione on Lake Garda might be a great spot to relax and explore for a couple days.

Sirmione has a really interesting ancient Roman villa that is partially excavated. You can practically climb all over it, and they have a good museum of artifacts too. I loved the huge rosemary hedges along the walkways. There's also a really cool medieval church there.

Torre is another small interesting place to putter around in. There are some ancient runes you can hike to and make rubbings.

Or you could get on the ferry and go to the top of the lake and spend a night in Riva del Garda, or Limone sul Garda. I could spend a day just ferrying around the lake.

The lake is just beautiful, especially the northern mountainous parts and is kinda off the main tourist drag. Good to swim in too.

Lakes Como and Maggiore are great and I'd visit them again in a heartbeat.

Lugano Switzerland, just over the border, is beautiful.

Bologna is lovely, historical, with delicious food. If you are interested in gorgeious mosaics from the 100-400AD period, you must go to Ravenna. They are exquisite, and the town itself is a delight. It is small, with a classic town square... the place looks like a set for a movie about Italy in the Middle Ages. Friendly people, everything is much more modestly priced than the big cities.

FWIW, Ravenna, although lovely, is a pretty long haul by train from Milan - 3 1/2 hours. Bologna is just 1 3/4 hrs away.

As Michael said above, there's lots to do in Milan...that is an understatement. If you like "cities" (NYC, Paris, London) you will love Milan..it has both the historical and the modern elements...more than enough there to keep you busy for several days.