On a whim, I've taken advantage of the latest Ryanair offer and booked flights to Milan for myself and my girlfriend (for 4p, including taxes!). I'm looking for a bit of advice as to exactly what to do when we get there. We land at 9am on a Tuesday and leave at about 10pm on a Wednesday.

I know we're flying to Bergamo and its 40-50km (1 hour, ish) away from Milan. First up, what's the best way to get from Bergamo to Milan?

Secondly, is there likely to be a difference in the price of accommodation between Bergamo and Milan i.e. would it be worth staying in Bergamo (which I understand is quite a nice city in itself) and spending an afternoon in Milan, or is there enough to see / do in Milan to warrant spending all our time there?

If anyone wants to recommend a cheap hotel for either that would also be fantastic!

Go to www.trenitalia.com and put in Bergamo to Milan and you will seee that it takes approx. 1 hour by train. I would suspect that the train is your cheapest and best way at about 3.5 euro each way 2nd class.

As far as accomodations, you should start doing some researach on www.venere.com and tripadvisor.com to see price differences. You will probably find Milan to be more expensive, especially in the city center.

So you're flying into Bergamo, traveling an hour to Milan, staying one day then going back to Bergamo, then going home? Are you going anywhere else?

What is your budget per night for hotels and how many people will be in each room?

You can go to Milan direct from Bergamo (Orio al Serio) airport by bus. It's an hour trip, and there are buses every half hour. Very easy.
But I would stay in Bergamo, which as you say is quite a nice city, and go to Milan by train from there as a day trip (or half-day trip). I did something similar last year, but I stayed in Milan because I had a visit booked to the Last Supper first hour in the morning...if not, I would have been happy in Bergamo too, in fact, I'm thinking on going back to actually see it

We loved Bergamo; I'd recommend a stay there. I have a trip report here:
http://www.slowtrav.com/tr/triprepor...76&index=1
and a photo album here:
http://rozault.com/Italy2006/bergamo

We decided to stay in Bergamo, btw, because it was a lot cheaper than Milan.

"So you're flying into Bergamo, traveling an hour to Milan, staying one day then going back to Bergamo, then going home?"

That was my original plan yes. However I'm slowly coming round to the view that it might be better to stay in Bergamo and instead do Milan in a day trip on the first day, as suggested by Kenderina. So we would have one day in Milan and one day in Bergamo, with the overnight stay being in Bergamo.

Thanks for the train info - that website is really useful.

Accomodation wise, I'm about to take a look at those websites. Looking for a double room for (obviously) 2 people. Not sure what prices are like so would 60-80 Euros for one night be feasible or far too low?

Cheers for the help guys!

check the hotel websites I gave you to see if you can find accomodations that you would consider staying in. You might find some in that price range but who knows how "hostel-like" they may be.