My husband and I will be flying into Milan on April 27, back out on May 10 (15 nights). We are planning to spend our time North of but not including Florence with bookends in Como (front end 3 nights) and Cinque Terre (back end 3 nights). Any suggestions on how you all would plan the middle? We are planning on traveling by train only. Also, I believe Labor Day is May 1 (a Thursday)--does anyone have any idea of how this may impact travel?
Posted by
US Pacific Northwest
10344 posts
How refreshing to find someone who wants to do only a little in a lot of time. Usually we are trying to talk people out of trying to do too much in too little time. Is it too late in your travel planning to have your first night and part of the next day be in Milan? And when you say "Como" hopefully you are referring to the mid-lake destinations such as Varenna, Bellagio, or Menaggio and not the town of Como itself? 3 nights is good for one of the mid-Lake destinations. And 3 nights is good for the Cinque Terre. How to use up the middle 8 or 9 days? You could go into southern Switzerland from Lake Como, say Lugano, although this can be easily done as a day trip from Lake Como--but you have the time so you could spend a night or two there. And you could go east from Lake Como to Verona and Bologna on your way down southwest to the CT. I assume you are excluding Florence because you have already been there?
Posted by
OP
Los Angeles, CA, US
5 posts
Kent-
Thanks so much for replying. We've done the survey trip of Italy a couple of times and my husband just wants to "slow down" this trip.
Yes--when I say Como, I meant he region not the exact town. Originally we were planning on going to Switzerland for about 1/2 the trip but quickly realized that the poor dollar in an already expensive country just wasn't going to work for us. However, a day trip is a great idea. You confirmed my ideas about ambling through the Verona area.
Yes, we've been to Florence and while it definitely is worth many more visits, we are trying to spend time in places we haven't been (with the exception of CT).
We were only planning to spend a half day or so in Milan the night before traveling back to the states, but on your suggestion, we'll look into staying a little longer. Thanks so much!
Posted by
Arroyo Grande, California, USA
24 posts
Shannon....we were there just last Oct. and reading this site makes me want to get back as soon as possible ! Your trip sounds delightful. May I suggest the cooking class with chef Moreno outside of Varenna on Lake Como ? ( see Rick Steve's book for info...ilcaminettoonline.com, I think ). If it works out, we thought it worth it and made a great friend on top of it all ! He and his wife visited us for 2 days last Nov. while on the central coast of Calif. AND returned our camera that we left in our hotel in Milan with all of our memory sticks ! We can't say enough good things about Moreno and his wife !
We wish we would have had more time in Bologna ( we were there only for the Ducati motorcycle museum and factory tour )....and would have enjoyed staying in Verona much longer than overnight. We were treated well at Hotel Torcolo there ( by Caterina ). enjoy your trip ! marilyn