Cinque Terre, lake Como and Swiss alps

In Cinque Terre, any of the 5 towns are good, however Corniglia is not on the water, and is more out of the way. Monterosso is the largest, and has the best beach. Vernazza is my favorite, probably most picturesque IMO. Riomaggiore and Manarola are smaller, but a lot of people like staying there. Can't really go wrong with any, and all are about 5 minutes apart by train.

In lake Como, I think the most popular town, on this board, is Varenna. Try Albergo Milano https://www.varenna.net

Swiss Alps covers a lot. Look at Grindelwald and also the St-Mortiz area( stay in Pontresina) See how trains line up to those. We drove and both were convenient to tne Italian Lakes. Look at www.maninseat61.com for help with trains.

Be aware that your train connection days to and from Switzerland will take a full day with several changes of train. Pack light to make it easy on yourself. Looking Up Train Schedules and Routes Online gives you the Deutsche Bahn train schedule link and tips for using it. The search will automatically show the fastest connections, unless you want to enter a detour midpoint.

If you use the grey Search bar on this page with key words like "Lauterbrunnen" and "Como," you'll find multiple similar route discussions. You don't necessarily need those, but if train schedules raise further questions, the answers might already be there.

One convenient feature of Monterosso is that there are direct IC trains between Milano Centrale and there. So you can get there easy from Milan, and you will have to return there for trains to Switzerland.
When are you planning to do this?

This was our trip in May of this year. We started in Venice, but took the train to Milano Centrale then an Intercity train ( booked online) to Monterosso direct. We stayed in a wonderful B and B, Affittacamere Da Cesare. We took the local train to Vernazza, Manarola and Riomaggio and back. We also took the Intercity to Milano Centrale where we took a local train to Varenna. (Buy your local train tickets to Varenna at the Monterosso train station.) We absolutely adored Varenna and the mid lake region of Lake Como!!! We then ferried to Bellagio ( a 15 min ride), took the bus #30 down to Como and the train station (Como San Giovanni) where we took a train to Zurich. (Tickets also purchased online.) My only suggestion would be to go directly to Lucerne instead of Zurich. Lucerne is more charming. Then you could take the train from Lucerne directly to the Zurich airport where you could fly out of to return home. It is easy to explore more of Switzerland by train from Lucerne.

The trip will be end of May. We will fly into Milan take train next day to Cinque Terre. Take train from Milan to Tirano catch the Bernin express train. Want to stay a couple of days in a quaint village along this route. Then on to Lake Como. Would it be easier to go back to Milan to get to lake Como? We would. like to fly back out of Milan. Is there a better way ?

Are you going to be sight-seeing in Milan on your arrival? If not, instead of wasting a day there, why don't you just go straight to the Cinque Terre and have an extra day there?

We can but since it is a long flight I thought it would be best to stay in Milan to unwind and get a good night sleep

Cheryl,

Given that this trip won't be taking place until the end of next May, is there any possibility of using open-jaw flights, inbound Zürich and outbound Milan? For such an extremely short trip, it would be wise to minimize transportation times and use the most efficient Itinerary possible. You might end up staying in Milan for one night prior to your flight home, so that will provide a few hours to look around.

Where in the "Swiss Alps" are you planning to visit? Which town on Lago di Como are you planning to stay in? Which of the five Cinque Terre towns would you prefer? It's impossible to provide suggestions on "places to stay" until you indicate which towns you want to stay in.

You might consider reducing Lake Como to four nights and add a night at your first stop. Two nights in a place is really only about one full day of touring. Also, it could take more than a day to get over jet lag (everyone is different in that regard).

It will be easier to provide more detailed suggestions when more is known about your final Itinerary.

Good luck with your planning!

Cheryl, My husband & I are going to Italy next month, and when we first started planning, I had us going to Lucerne & then on to Innsbruck to see the alps (that was the main attraction)- anyway, our hotel in Lucerne had a fire and was out for rest of year. Someone on this forum suggested we go to the Italian Alps which is a lot easier to travel to from Cinque Terre. We booked a charming hotel in Coutmayeur called Auberge de la Maison overlooking Mont Blanc. You may want to explore the Italian alps, and save the Swiss alps for another trip.

I believe the train from Milano to Tirano passes along the shore of Lago Como with stops on the lake.