2 days in Lake Region of Northern Italy

Judie, Do you have any preferences for WHICH of the lakes you would prefer visiting? My suggestion would be to forget the car and take a train to Varenna (1H:03M). Spend two nights there and just enjoy the wonderful ambience of Lago di Como and Varenna. In the evenings, you could spend a few minutes sitting on the bench on the lakeside promenade, which runs from the Ferry dock to the main part of town, and just watch the boats going back and forth. While there you could also take the Ferry (20M) to the elegant town of Bellagio, or other spots around the mid-lake region. Happy travels!

While it is technically possible to return to Milan from Lake Como or Maggiore, it defeats the purpose of going. The whole point of the lakes, as Rick correctly says, is to "see how slow you can get your pulse." This is much easier if you're not heading back to Milan each day. On Lake Como, I've only stayed in Varenna (train from Milan as Ken says), but it was lovely; I didn't care for Bellagio, but I seem to be the only one (well, I liked the gardens south of town, but not the town itself). Next time, I'll stay again in Varenna, and see Menaggio. On another trip, my friend had a car, and we drove around part of Lake Garda. We thought the lake views from the road would be nice, and failed to anticipate that the traffic would make the road anything but scenic. The town of Riva del Garda was very nice, though; Lazise, not so special. We didn't get to other towns (again, the thick traffic was so unpleasant that we were discouraged from trying, and we didn't get on the boats between towns, which would have been the way to go).

Stay in Varenna and take the ferry on Lake Como to other places if you want to. It's stunningly beautiful.

Yes, of course I have Rick Steve's book...won't leave (or plan on leaving!) home without it! I was looking for personal opinions! Thanks for replying.

Thanks everyone. Your advise is well noted. Is there a specific restaurant(s) that you suggest? What about eating at some of the well known hotels along the lake?
I've heard Isola Bella on Lake Maggiore is fabulous as well. What's your thoughts on that? How is the transportation from Milan?

Do you have the RS Italy book? It answers all these sorts of questions and more.

I'm glad you have the book (Good for you!), but there's no "of course" about it. You would be surprised how many people come here asking all sorts of basic questions that the RS books cover. Happy travels.

We were in the Lake Cuomo area last month and stayed near Bellagio. Veranna was pretty but a bit small in size for me to stay there. I liked the ferry service from Bellagio. It was easy to get to either side of the Lake. I guess my comment would be you can pretty much see Veranna in a day or afternoon it really isn't that big, so I would want to be closer to the rest of the towns that I can travel between very easily. We had a car and you can really move from town to town easily.

You don't mention if your travel patner is a romantic partner, if so, you really must spend at least one night. We stayed two nights in Bellagio and had dinner both nights at the edge of the water watching the sun set and the lights from the villages across the lake come on. Truly one of the most beautiful and romantic places in the world. (now that I've set the mood I'll break it by telling the story of the saddest thing we ever witnessed, We were eating at the Hotel Florence, on the edge of Lake Como and were aware of an older (70s) couple at the next table. We were there for a few hours and everything was perfect until suddenly we sensed something not right. The wife dumped her husband after they ate dinner and quietly made a lengthy speech about how much he disgusted her and she was so glad to be free. It wasn't a scene, we were the only people really aware of what went on. Or so we thought, the waiter was aware and after the woman left him there the waiter came right over and asked what he could do. The man just said "how fast can you get my bill". He looked a broken old man and I wanted to offer to walk him back to wherever he was staying but just couldn't think of a way to approach him as a stranger. Often wonder if the kindness of a stranger would have helped or made it worse).

Tom & Andrea: Your posts were most helpful. Thank you. What a weird and HORRIBLE story, Andrea! :-(

I spent 2 days in on lake Maggiore this last May, and it was the highlight of my trip. Lovely place, gorgeous islands and gardens. I wish I had stayed longer.