With OR without a car? Turin, Stresa (Lake Maggiore), Lake Como, Levanto EDITED

1. Then how do I get to Turin?

You take the Arriva bus; as explained on the Airport's official site this service has not been suspended because of Covid.

2-5. No idea, sorry, The first thing that comes to my mind is to check the train schedules on trenitalia.com/en.htm Use Italian city names and put a day of travel before June 12.

• Torino to Baveno will be a bit annoying by train, you probably have to go via Milan, but it shouldn't take much more than three hours total.
• I do not think that you need to stay in Como town, one base on lake Como is OK. Bellano looks good.
• Bellano to Levantó has you backtracking to Milan, then I think there are direct trains from Milan to Levanto (they go to La Spezia).

Thank you Dario! :)
Sincerely
Joe :)

Thank you Balso! :)
We are only able to stay in Bellano 3 nights because our airbnb only has 3 available. We wanted 7 nights total on Lake Como. Thats why we have the dual stay.
Sincerely
Joe :)

1. By bus from MXP
2. By train (if you don't have accommodations in Baveno yet, try Stresa. It has more ferry connections, also more trains stop there).
3. By train. However Como is not that pretty. Why don't you stay in the towns on the midlake instead, such as Varenna, Bellagio, or Menaggio? from Baveno or Stresa to Varenna it's an easy train ride (one connection at Milano Centrale)
4. From Como to Bellano, the best way is by fast ferry. However if you can stay in nearby Varenna. It has more frequent ferries to travel around the lake.
5. via train with connection in Milan and possibly Genoa as well.

Edit 4. If your Abnb has only 3 nights in Bellano, then stay the other 4 somewhere other than Como. Varenna, would be perfect because it's only a train stop from Bellano. Otherwise try Menaggio or Bellagio, across the lake. To get there take the ferry from Varenna. Then you can go back to Bellano by ferry.

I know that Turin and Levanto have train stations with service to Milan. Levanto is fairly small and our hotel there even had bikes available for the guests. I haven't been to the Lakes area yet so I look forward to seeing the responses. Good luck!

Thank you Roberto :)

We will now be staying in Stresa.

Because we are staying in Bellano for 3 nights I thought we might stay in the southernmost part of the lake (Como) for the other 3 or 4 nights. I will rethink that thank you.

Sincerely
Joe :)

Thank You Jack! :)

Thank you in advance everyone :)
I just EDITED this and have a new question.
If it was you, would you rent a car from Milan to Turin to Stresa?
And then return the car back to Milan MXP before proceeding to Lake Como?
:)

If it was you, would you rent a car from Milan to Turin to Stresa?

No, they are well connected by train and I see no reason to bother with a car.

Hi Tigger, we have been to Turin, Stresa & Lake Como and always just rode the trains between locations. They’re easy, and it’s more relaxing for us. But it depends if you wanted to stop and see other sites along the way.

Just an itinerary comment - that is a lot of time focused on lake/water locations. If you were asking about your itinerary, I would suggest going to either Lake Maggiore (Stresa) or Lake Como but not both to add more variety to your trip. If you are interested in music, Stresa has a nice Stresa Music Festival in the summer that ends early September.

Thank you Badger & Jean :)

We decided that we would focus on Milan, Turin, Northern Lakes, Cinque Terre, and Tuscany for this upcoming trip to Italy.
In our past 2 trips, We rented a car both times and have put way over 1000 miles on rental cars so far in Italy.

This trip, after Levanto & Cinque Terre we will be heading down to San Quirico d'Orcia again for many many nights with a rental car.
But based on what I am hearing from a lot of people, a rental car might not be needed for our Northern Italy stays.

Thank you again Everyone! :) This really helps.

Here are our past 2 trips for reference.
ITALY 2017 & 2019 Summary
ITALY CITIES SLEPT IN
Monticchiello (Tuscany) 5 nights
Sorrento 4 nights
Castiglione (Ravello) (Amalfi Coast) 4 nights
Rome 4 nights
Venice 3 nights
Florence 3 nights
Monterosso Al Mare (Cinque Terre) 2 nights
Montipulciano (Tuscany) 1 night

ITALY CITIES VISITED
Monticchiello
Sorrento
Castiglione (Ravello)
Rome
Venice
Florence
Monterosso Al Mare (Cinque Terre)
Montipulciano
Val d'Orcia
Arezzo
Cortona
Assisi
Spello
Pienza
San Quirico d'Orcia
Montalcino
Greve in Chianti
Lucca
Pisa
Volterra
Civita
Orvieto
Amalfi
Ravello
Minori
Maiori
Capri
Positano
Vernazza (Cinque Terre)
Corniglia (Cinque Terre)
Manarola (Cinque Terre)
Riomaggiore (Cinque Terre)
La Spezia
Monteriggioni
Siena
San Gimignano

Sant’Agnello

Atrani
Praino
Agerola
Salerno
Naples

FUTURE TRIP CITIES
Northern Italy Lake District
Milan
Turin
Pitigliani
Ischia
Back to Cinque Terre
Back to San Quirico d'Orcia and all surrounding hilltop villages in Tuscany. :)

Oh, wonderful! You have seen a lot of Italy already!

I’m planning to go back to Stresa again in June. I’m planning to stay at Boutique Hotel Elvezia on Isola Bella again - such a unique experience to be able to stay on the tiny island, and the ferry system is great. I took the ferry up to Villa Taranto, if you like beautiful flower & green gardens.

I’m adding several new locations and see that you have been to Spello - one I’m planning to also be able to attend their Infiorate di Spello.

Have a wonderful time!

Hi Everyone :)

Jean, I was re reading your first comment to me. Do feel that 4 nights Stresa (Lake Maggiore), and 6 nights Como & Bellano (Lake Como) is too many "Lake nights"? We will be "day tripping" to some parts of Switzerland while we are in the Lake District.

I would like to know your's and everyone's thoughts.

Thank you in advance :)

4 nights in Stresa is really not too much at all. Lots of places to see on Lake Maggiore (Borromee islands, Cannobio, Locarno, Cento Valli railroad, Orta San Giulio on Lake Orta, etc.). You may wish you had 5 by the time you are done.

6 nights on Lake Como might be one or two more than I would spend, but you can certainly keep yourself busy once you include a visit to Lugano (from Menaggio), the Orrido of Bellano (Gorge), Villa Carlotta, Isola Comacina, Villa del Balbianello, Bellagio, Menaggio, Cernobbio.

I especially liked the Centovalli rail trip. From Stresa you'd take an Italian regional train over to Domodossola--which sounds very attractive, but I was always just passing through, so I never saw the historic part of town. In Domodossola you'd switch to the Swiss Centovalli train, ending up in Locarno.

Thank you Roberto & Acraven! :)

Hi Tigger,

Personally for me, having 10 nights in the Lake District would be too much. A place nearby that I didn’t see in your past cities list is Bergamo. I planned to be there in 2020, then 2021 and now hopefully it happens this June! I’m staying up in the Citta Alta portion of town. The Citta Alta (and you can go even further up with another funicular) and the Accadamia Carrara Museum are on my agenda during the three nights there. I’m just traveling by train, and I did include Stresa again for the third time on this itinerary in June.

Ok Thank you Jean! :) I will look into that.
June for you sounds exciting!
Sincerely Joe :)