Our Northern Italy road trip began in Bergamo, a city that proved to be the perfect entry point into the region. We flew in with Ryanair, picked up our rental car at the airport, stayed overnight in a simple but reliable hotel, and hit the road the next morning — ready for the lakes, the cities, and everything in between.
🟩 Flying into Bergamo + Car Rental Experience
We arrived via Ryanair at Bergamo-Orio al Serio Airport, one of the easiest and most affordable gateways into Northern Italy.
For our journey, we booked a rental with Budget and picked up the cutest little Fiat 500 — ideal for two people with carry-on-sized luggage.
🚗 Rental Car Recap:
- Model: Fiat 500
- Space: Just right for 2 people + 2 small suitcases
- Comfort: Great for short to medium drives
- Fuel Efficiency: Fantastic — we drove ~900 km on ~€80 of petrol
🏨 Our Hotel: Starhotels Cristallo Palace
For our first night, we stayed at the Starhotels Cristallo Palace, a perfectly decent option for a short stopover.
👍 What we liked:
- Clean, simple rooms
- Free public parking right in front of the hotel
- Ideal for resting before an early departure the next day
It’s not a hotel you’d stay in for long, but for a practical one-night stay near the airport or highway, it did the job well.
ℹ️ Parking in Italy: What We Learned
Bergamo is where we first discovered how the Italian parking system works — and honestly, it’s pretty straightforward once you know what to look for:
🔲 White lines = Free parking
🔵 Blue lines = Paid parking
🟡 Yellow lines = Reserved for residents
💡 To pay for blue zone parking:
- Enter your license plate into the parking meter
- Pay by card (most meters accept debit/credit)
- Even better: use the EasyPark app
- It lets you see how much time you have left
- You can extend your parking remotely (super convenient!)
🛣️ Tolls in Italy: A Quick Guide
We covered a lot of highway miles during our road trip, so here’s what we found:
✅ Most toll booths accept credit or debit cards
✅ You can also pay in cash
⚠️ FreeFlow tolls (no physical booth) are a bit trickier:
- You need to go to the specific highway’s website
- Enter your license plate
- Pay online with a credit card
⚠️ Be careful: you don’t get notified — you must check and pay yourself. Otherwise, you risk fines later on.
🟨 Wrap-Up
Bergamo was the perfect soft landing in Italy. From the stress-free airport arrival to learning local parking tricks, renting the world’s cutest car, and getting a full night’s sleep before the adventure began — it was a smooth and solid start to our road trip.
Coming up next: Verona, Venice, Lake Garda, Lake Como, and Milan — with plenty of photos, practical tips, and honest reviews from the road.
Stay tuned — and if you have questions about this part of the trip, leave a comment!
—
The Far & Roaming Family
Far & Roaming 
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