Italy Itinerary

Just to clarify when you say 1 day visiting Lake Como do you mean a daytrip to Lake Como from Milan or do you mean one or two nights in a Lake Como town? Three nights in Milan is two full days so it would mean Last Supper tickets (book as soon as they become available these are hard to get) and Duomo/Galleria for one day and the other spent doing a daytrip to the lake. Or do you mean one or two actual nights at a lake town?

I would advocate either a daytrip or two nights as I try never to stay two nights somewhere unless it's for travel reasons. Two back to back days of travel and changing hotels is no vacation to me.

The way you describe it sounds like you're day tripping most of your days or moving around a lot. It sounds like you've mapped out well what you want to do where but make sure everyone is up all the constant activities because this sounds like a lot. If this is the way you like to travel and everyone is up for it that's great, but more people involved the more complicated the logistics and opinions.

My $.02, have a great trip,
=Tod

Gallarate is not on the lake, it's small, dull town whose only raison d'être is being close to MXP airport. If you are interested in the Lake Maggiore, you could pick a village like Arona that's actually on the lake, that is worth visiting and has a train station to get to the airport.

You can't visit the Aosta Valley as a day trip from Turin unless you rent a car. Getting by train/bus from Turin to the city of Aosta takes around 2 hours and 30 minutes. You are basically commuting for Five hours to walk around Aosta for 5 or 6 hours.

Afaik there are no chocolate factories in Turin anymore; only some small, craft enterprises. Quite interesting if you are in the sector, but I'd learn more about these tours before bringing a 10 years old.

If I were you I'd stay 4 days in Camogli and make a day trip to Genoa.

Visiting Genoa and Turin instead of Venice and Florence is... an interesting choice. You can live without seeing a floating city untouched since the 17th century but you have to spend 4 nights in Italy's reply to Detroit? I totally agree with you, but I may be the only one!

I should have clarified, Aosta City, which is a 1 hour and 35 min. bus ride. The chocolate tour actually is a museum, and yes I am staying in Gallarate due to the proximity to the airport and the place we are staying has a nice pool to unwind after travelling for so many days!

Arona that's actually on the lake, that is worth visiting and has a train station to get to the airport.

I concur with this. There are pretty good public trans connections on the west side of Lake Maggiore to MXP I'm going to be flying out of Milan this summer and plan to stay in Stresa.

1 day visiting Lake Como

I think most folks recommend taking the train from Milan to Varenna and then taking ferries south to Bellagio/Como. But leave early.

Hi Judy, before I give suggestions, can you tell us what type of vacation you’re wanting - besides avoiding crowds, and also which month this will occur? Are you renting a car or traveling by train?

I really like Stresa at Lake Maggiore and also Torino, but first it would help to know what your group enjoys doing.

I will be traveling in August, we will arrive by air and travel by train and my family just loves new adventures. We have been fortunate to have visited 35 of the US states, and have recently traveled to England and in 2024 Bavaria and Austria. We fell in love with Europe and hope to have more time there in the future.

which is a 1 hour and 35 min. bus ride

There is a direct bus from Turin that departs in the morning and takes only 1h and 35? That's good news, I was unaware of it.

Since you want to avoid crowds, you'd better avoid being in Italy around August 15.

As for Lake Como:
Don't go to Como City, this is only another loud and dirty city. Take the through-train via Lecco to Varenna (a bit more then 1 hour). There you are on the most beautiful part of the lake. After you've visited Varenna and the gardens there you could take a ferry (car-ferries also take pedestrians) to Bellagio, which is another beautiful village.
Depending on the month you are there you then can take the ferry from Bellagio to Lecco and the train back to Milan. Or go back the same way you arrived.
It would be a long day, but really worth. And: no prebooking necessary, you can decide just the evening before or in the morning, depending on the weather. Just go very early to the train station.

I didn't really have significant problems moving around the middle of Lake Como (Varenna/Bellagio/Menaggio) at the end of August 2025, but other visitors have reported major ferry difficulties in the form of very long ticket lines. I know one of our posters got around the problem by getting up early and buying a day-ticket hours before s/he actually planned to travel. If you are day-tripping to Lake Como, that technique will not work for you. Traveling in August, you may spend an undesirable amount of time lining up for ferry tickets. I'm not saying you shouldn't go to Lake Como, but it could turn out to be a somewhat disappointing day. Although the views of the lake shore from the ferries are lovely, if you're also going to Lake Maggiore, you might think hard about whether you need to visit a second lake on this trip. You'll also have good views from the water when you visit Liguria.