How best to spend six days in Northern Italy?

Genua and Turin, and possibly the Piemonte mountains? Bologna with daytrips to Ravenna, Ferrara and other towns around?

I'd probably go for a combination of Varenna and one of the Dolomite locations, but those are all attractive options.

The Alpe di Siusi and the Val Gardena are adjacent. You can stay in the Val Gardena -- Ortisei, Santa Cristina or Selva -- and go the Alpe by lift. Try to allocate at least 3 nights there to allow for possible less-than-perfect weather.

Do you have 6 nights or only 5? If 5, then 3 Val Gardena and 2 in Varenna would be nice. If 6, I'd add another night in the Val Gardena since it is a bit of a trek to get there.

Hi Terry,

I'd go with 3 nights in the Val Gardena also. 4 if you can manage it. The Val Gardena and the Alpe di Siusi/Seiser Alm are right next to one another. There are a few cable cars in the Val Gardena that take you right to the Alpe di Siusi.

Hallstatt is a real trek to reach from any of your locations. It's at least 5 to 6 hours each way from the nearest, Venice or Val Gardena. Innsbruck would be doable from Val Gardena, but I wouldn't bother. To visit a nice old town much closer, try Bozen, Brixen or Sterzing. You'll feel like your in Austria in all these places, as German is usually the first language spoken and the entire area was once a part of Austria, at least until the aftermath of WWI. It still "feels" Austrian in atmosphere, food, etc. Many lifts open in mid to late May.

www.valgardena.it/en/hiking-biking/walking-trekking/lifts/

Paul

We have six nights total to play with. We've never been to the Val Gardena area but we spent a couple of nights in Casterotto back in 2000. As I recall it was very beautiful.

I'll also look into Bozen, Brixen and the other suggested towns mentioned.

We plan on renting a car in Rome for the first leg. Originally we were going to turn the rental car in at La Speiza and train everywhere else. Now I think we might keep it all they way through til Venice.

I stayed in both Bozen and Brixen last year and enjoyed them. Both have very attractive historic centers. Bozen is much larger (about 5 times the size of Brixen) and has a number of museums. Both have good transportation links up into the Dolomites. One nice thing about hotels in Brixen (though most would recommend that you stay up in the mountains) is that they generally give you a free Brixen card that covers train transportation in the area, some bus trips, and even a few chairlifts. The card also gives you free entry to the Bozen museum housing Otzi. I calculated that I saved an average of $10 a day with that card, which was nice.