My husband and I are visiting Milan the first week of November. The main purpose of our trip is to visit our daughter who is studying there this fall. I am looking for advice on day trips from Milan. We've been to Italy twice before so can pass on the more touristy locations (i.e. Venice, Florence). We are planning an overnight trip to Cinque Terre with our daughter when we arrive. Other than that, we are discussing Bologna, Verona, Genoa, Parma. I assume the lakes regions are out in November (first glance at Stresa showed many of the sites are closed - Isola Bella, Isola Madre) though we're open to visiting if there are things to see. We would also consider the Dolomiti region, but it looks like a day trip may not be feasible. We prefer to keep travel to under 2 hours one-way. We are physically active and enjoy the outdoors. We love art/food and would prefer towns to cities for a change of pace from Milan. Any suggestions?
Posted by
roswell, ga, usa
1501 posts
I'd go to Bologna! The food is amazing, and the city is beautiful. Most places in the Lakes Region will be closed. The Dolomite region will be pretty cold, but may be fun, especially if you like German food which can be more common than not in that region.
Posted by
New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
First, look into towns in Lombardy, like Cremona, Mantova, Pavia and Bergamo. All of these should be easy to see from Milan as a day trip.
Then look at towns in Emilia-Romagna, like Parma, Reggio Emilia, and Ferrara (some of these may be too far for an easy day trip). Bologna is a city (smaller than Milan of course), but the others are smaller towns/cities.
If you don't mind a city and want something different, look at Turin.
I'm not sure how "open" the Cinque Terre towns are in November; search other posts here for discussions of this. Like the lakes, the CT are a seasonal destination. At that time of year, you will want to have indoor attractions available, and others have posted that when it rains in the CT, there's nothing to do.
Posted by
Firenze
500 posts
Consider how well all the different places are connected by rail and make your decisions.
High speed trains are expensive but make day trips to Turin, Bologna, Florence, Verona, Genoa, Padua possible. All of them but Florence can be reached also by cheaper slow trains but sometimes travel time is too long.
Parma, Bergamo, Brescia are well connected to Milan. Cremona is on a slow line but still possible. Mantova and Ferrara are not conveniently located coming from Milan. Dolomites are out of question. Lakes may be beautiful on a clear autumn days but who knows.
Food is everywhere very good, usually very hearty all over northern Italy, in Parma it may be outstanding so it would be my first choice. - Actually, it is often as outstanding in Cremona as well, but they do not make a fuss out of it as in Parma :-)
Posted by
Toledo, Ohio, US
11613 posts
I visited Bergamo for the first time in July. It is beautiful. There is a local bus from the train station to Citta Alta, the day I visited there was a nice crafts market.
Posted by
Milano
60 posts
varese or monza
Posted by
OP
FL
99 posts
Thanks for all the suggestions! After doing some research, we have narrowed it down to Bologna, Padua and Turin. We like the idea of seeing the different regions. And each place looks so wonderful for exploration for different reasons.
I'm concerned about our plans for Cinque Terre ... we visited there previously during October and hadn't considered a few weeks later would make a big difference, but seems like crossing into November might in fact be too late in the season. Thanks for mentioning it.