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Cinque Terre, Lake Como/Bellagio and Switzerland itinerary help please

Hi,

My friend and I will be traveling in and out of Milan in late September and have 8 full days of travel. We would like to go to Cinque Terre, Lake Como or Bellagio and head into Switzerland via Bernini train either for a day or overnight. We would also like to see the Last Supper at some point in Milan.

Thinking of heading into CT first for three nights (not sure of which village) and then take train back to Milan and see The Last Supper and head up to Lake Como area. Any advice on staying in Bellagio or Lake Como? (Is three nights too long for CT?)

We are pretty open to suggestions or other stops along the way. We definitely want to soak in all Norther Italy/Switzerland has to offer with minimum travel time. I hear Parma is amazing too.

Thanks in advance!

DC

Posted by
8471 posts

DC, you do know that you have to have advance tickets for a specific day/time for your 15 minute visit to the Last Supper? You said ". . . Bellagio or Lake Como. . . " when I guess you mean the town of Como, not the lake. It will confuse train travel or driving if you mean one versus the other.

Posted by
303 posts

To get to the CT from Milan you will need to get to the train station, Milano Centrale, where you can purchase an Intercity train ticket to Monterroso. Last May we had prepurchased these tickets online, and we left Milano Centrale at 12:10 pm and had a direct train to Monterroso that arrived at 3:05. Stay in Monterroso and use the local train or ferry to the villages. Prepurchase your direct Intercity train tickets back to Milano Centrale where you will purchase regional train tickets to Varenna-Esino. Varenna is right across the lake from Bellagio. Walk to the ferry dock and purchase ferry tickets to Bellagio for a 15 minute ferry ride. You might want to consider staying in Varenna instead.

We went from Varrena to Switzerland (Zurich) from the train station in Como, but I think that you can access the Bernina Express going north from Varenna via train. Someone with more info can help you with that.

Hope this helps!

Posted by
871 posts

Purchase tickets up on arrival at the airport, Malpensa Aeroporto to the village of your choice. Monterosso there are trains every two hours with only one change downtown at Milano Centrale. Should you wish one of the other four villages, here is the sequence on a connecting train:

https://www.e656.net/orario/treno/21206.html

Posted by
2 posts

Thanks for the info on the train tickets. We were thinking of staying in Monterosso but heard it was very crowded there. Did you find that to be true?

Thank you for the info on Varenna too!