I spent a week at this bed and breakfast - it's essentially a two-bedroom flat on the second floor of an apartment block, with the owners living in the flat across the hall. My room was very simple and cleaner than my actual home. It had two beds - one big, one small - a television, a fridge, and a selection of rolls and buns and so forth. There is a shared kitchen and a shared bathroom / shower room and a small hall. No other rooms. I paid 35 euros a night for just myself. There were enough power sockets for me to charge my mobile and run my laptop and run a fan and the fridge all at once. You don't have to pay for electricity. There's a washing machine.

I didn't actually ever see the landlady, although she answered all my emails promptly. It was this that led me to stay there - most of the guest houses in the area that have websites and email addresses never got back to me. The landlady's tanned and young and lovely daughter showed me around. They didn't seem to be about on the last day so I actually just left the money in the room. So far I haven't had the police after me, cross fingers.

The location is good. It's a brisk fifteen minute walk to the train station and the centre of Bergamo, which is an extremely pleasant place. If you're very fit it's also a fifteen minute walk up some steep stairs to the old town, which is a maze of twisty passages that resembles a film location. There was no building work in the location when I was there, no rave parties at night, no drunken yobs outside the building. I didn't see any of the other guests, presumably because they were at work. There was a Co-Op about five minutes down the road and to the left, and more food shops a short walk yonder.

Straying from the topic at hand, I recommend Bergamo itself. The old town isn't very large but it is extremely characterful. The whole place is on a hill, and there's a ruined castle at the top, and countryside off to the north-west, and lots of expensive houses. NB I didn't explore the greater Bergamo area, around the airport, which is probably less nice.

In summary then it was cheap; quiet; the location was within walking distance of the train station and buses to the airport; bonus! And the walk was on the flat (Bergamo is on a hill that ascends from south to north, whereas the b&b was west of the centre). I dunno about buses, I didn't use any, although the place was a short walk from a main road.

There were a few dislikes. The two rooms are joined by a balcony, and there's nothing physically stopping someone from walking out of their room into next door unless you close and lock the balcony door. The room doors are smoked glass, and there aren't curtains. If you don't get on with the other guests you might not like it; if however you rent both rooms (e.g. you're a family group) this isn't a problem. I didn't notice excessive noise travelling between the two rooms, but if like myself you're a ladies' man, and you bring home a new girlfriend every night and engage in rampant noisy monkey love, you might want to do so whilst the other occupants are out.

The place is guarded by the owners' dog, which is tiny and sits on the balcony and yaps a lot. It might get annoying if you don't like dogs. You could throw it off the edge and pretend that it was an accident, but that might sour your relationship with the owners.

I don't know if it's a continental thing, or whether I'm a repressed English prude, but the toilet / shower room also had a smoked glass door, with no curtain, and it faces the main door directly. If you're on the loo with the light on, and someone walks through the main door into the hall, they'll see you poo. If however you are broadminded this is not a problem. I actually had the place to myself after the first two days, so I didn't worry.

Yes, you can drink the tap water. There's a microwave, an electric cooker, but no gas cooking. You didn't go to Italy to stay at home and cook.