Itinerary help - two spare nights in northern Italy lakes area in mid October

Have you already looked at BRESCiA? Great city with the bonus of being 40 minutes from SALÒ on Lake Garda. Zurich is a 4.5-hour train ride away from Brescia.

I also really enjoyed Brescia - many interconnected grand piazzas, amazing Roman ruins, and castle on top of the hill. Completely off the tourist radar at this point but worth exploring. (If you go say "Hi" to the hovering rhino for me.)

MY second suggestion would have been Verona but you've crossed that off your list. Trento might also be interesting if you coming south past it already, but less so if you need to swing back north.

Have a great trip,
=Tod

Roman? Did I hear you tell me Brescia has Roman ruins? My partner LOVES a Roman ruin (which is why we have previously visited Verona).

Brescia looks very interesting. But not sure whether to do it on the way south after Bolzano or on the way north ... I will check the cruise ship timetable for La Spezia to see when we want to be in/avoid the Cinque Terre.

OH, does Brescia have Roman ruins. First get a time slot for the time, humidity and crowd controlled Brixia site. You get to tour the interior of an actual Roman temple left in situ before touring the exposed other temples along withe collected artifacts of the other temples and then you are eventually let out into the ruined arena area.

https://www.bresciamusei.com/en/museums-and-venues/brixia-roman-archaeological-area/

After that make your way down the Unesco trail to the Santa Giulia Museum. While the museum in interesting the museum sits on top of the Roman baths and some houses. So the basement of the museum are excavated baths with in situ mosaics and some of the museum walls are actually Roman walls.
This should give you an impression: https://www.bresciamusei.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Domus-di-Dioniso.jpg

https://www.bresciamusei.com/en/museums-and-venues/santa-giulia-museum/

You need time slot tickets for the Brixia site and they have combo tickets with the museum which make perfect sense. I went for the Brixia site the museum stuff is completely unadvertised and I lucked out following the Roman exhibits. Only in Italy would a site of this nature be a third place finisher and attract no attention. I did it as a day trip from Verona and could have easily spent another there.

Hope you get to visit,
=Tod

If you want to get out of the city, the little hill town of Fiesole is about a half hour’s bus ride from Florence.It also has Roman ruins..delightful spot all round and far from the madding crowds.

Not sure if the bus will to visit the tiny, beautiful Monteriggioni, a little walled village which is an absolute delight between Sienna and San Gimignano.

We weren’t hugely impressed with Lake Lugano…very big, busy city edging the lake and quite a contrast in atmosphere with Como and the smaller towns there.

If your train travel to Zurich requires a stop in Lucerne, I can’t recommend that beautiful small city highly enough.Gorgeous place though Swiss prices are eye watering!

Thanks scotlandmac. Escaping the madding crowds is likely to be high on our agenda.

Our Switzerland tour does have two nights in Lucerne and we have also spent two nights there previously before a Rhine river cruise - our first extremely brief taste of Switzerland.

OH, does Brescia have Roman ruins. First get a time slot for the time, humidity and crowd controlled Brixia site.

Thanks Tod. Our trips in recent years have included some great Roman sites: Zaragoza, Tarragona, Segovia, Lugo and Merida in Spain; Sofia, Varna and Plovdiv in Bulgaria; Nimes and Lyon in France (and the tiny, and seemingly undiscovered by tourists, Arenes de Lutece in Paris). As noted, we have previously been to Verona.

Brescia looks incredible and we will definitely fit it in. I may sacrifice some time in Florence to make it possible.

Glad I could help out, AussieNomad, your list is pretty impressive.

Finally getting to Nimes for the first time next month but in Provence I can highly recommend Arles, Vaison-la-Romaine, Glanum near Saint Remy, Pont du Gard (of course) and Orange (for the theater). Les Baux outside Saint Remy is also great to visit if not Roman.

I don't think Brescia will disappoint either as a city or as a Roman destination.

Enjoy,
=Tod

I would cut one night from Bologna and add it to either Siena or Lucca. My travel partner would definitely add it to Lucca. I’ve never been to Brescia but it sounds amazing.

in Provence I can highly recommend Arles, Vaison-la-Romaine, Glanum near Saint Remy, Pont du Gard (of course) and Orange (for the theater)

Our Provence plans last year (7 days) were scuppered by me catching COVID in Lyon and being too fatigued to venture much beyond our Airbnb in Nimes. Fortunately, we were right in the middle of the Roman area of Nimes so did manage to still see a lot. My partner did a lot more than me. One day we will return to Provence...