Itinerary Milan-Lake Garda-Venice-Tuscany

If you want to visit Venice-stay in Venice

Where will you stay on Lake Garda?

You’ll need the car in Tuscany but nowhere else
I would take train to wherever you can pick up a rental and return before heading back to Milan
That could be Florence since you’ll need to change trains there

You will need to spend night before departure in Milan or near MXP

Christine, thank you for your quick reply. We haven't decided yet where we will stay at Lake Garda. Under consideration are Desenzano or Malcesine. This is a new region for us. Any recommendations would be welcome. Thanks again.

I’m not really familiar with Lake Garda but do know that Malcesine has no train service and would be a bit of a trek from MXP

Desenzano does have train service from Milano Centrale

we enjoyed Desenzano, you can walk from the train station to the town/hotels, all down hill, probably a mile or so. Not too crowded.

We pretty much just did this trip...fly into Venice not Milan visit Venice and then train to Desenzano (we stayed at The Park hotel- it was marvelous) We day tripped to Verona and did a walking food tour and a winery tour. Both were great. We've been to Cortona in the past and did not like it so I would pick a different location for that part and 5-6 nights is probably too long
Venice - 3-4 nights
Lake Garda 3-4 nights
I'd pick Florence even though you said you prefer small towns 3-4 nights

Of course you can fly into Florence then go to lake garda then Venice and fly out of Venice.

Thank you all for your insight on our itinerary.

Donna, I like the idea of a day trip to Verona. Can you give me more specifics on the food walking tour and the winery tour?

I chose to fly into Milan because of the airline schedule. I'll look again at flying into Venice or Florence. When I looked it was something like a 30 hour itinerary from southeast US to Venice.

I believe we booked the two tours through Viator. We were a group of six so we opted for "private tours". The food walking tour was like three hours and we stopped about 6 times and the winery tour we took a van to two different wineries. Both tours were through the same company and the meeting places were the same for both tours. Let me check with the person who booked the tours from our group to see if she still has the names of the tours. We usually book through Viator or getyourguide.

I can imagine that Milan does have better flight times. The from Desenzano to Milan is about 90 minutes but I would go back the night before the flight. Our friends took the train from Milan to Desenzano and it was delayed about an hour so you never know what could happen.

We also did a sail trip on Lake Garda which was great. If you want that information I can ask our group member who booked that tour. The negative was that it was like an hour away from Desenzano to the marina.

hey hey RobinM
we spent an overnight on this beautiful lake in bardolino, late september/early october (09/28 to 10/02 2023 "carnifest.com/bardolino wine fest" couple years ago. they were having their annual festa dell'uva e de vino" wine festival. fun fun fun.
we rented a car in venice and drove to the lake, opposite of your plans. we double booked our room at hotelnettuno.com in bardolino since we were in venice for 5 nights before our greek island cruise.
look at pescheira del garda, bottom of lake and a transportation hub, for other options.
look on booking.com for either city, do you want hotel rooms or an apartment? check and do filters
rossiwrites.com search desenzano del garda
lakegardatravel.net
scroll down and read up about the towns/villages, getting around the lake
getyourguide.com
lake garda, check activities (wine tastings, boat rides, tour to santuary of madonna della corona "church built into the rocky mountain, painting lesson in vineyards with wine and local food platter, tours to verona
trike/ryder rental for ride around part of lake or to verona (duetigarage.com click rental for they offer)
italyweloveyou.com
stay in venice, wander around and get lost with zigging and zagging. we like staying near train station "venezia santa lucia" without having to push and pull luggage over steps/stairs/bridges.
albergomarin.it
across train station bridge down an alley way from grand canal
hotel rossi in the canareggio area
albergo casa peron in santa croce area
veniceapartments.org
others will come in with other suggestions
destination360.com/ venice/ cicchetti tour
schezzini.it
alessandro does a cichetti bar crawl, drink wine, eat finger foods venetian style, and learn some history. send him an email for more info.
streaty.com
street food tours in venice
eatwith.com/ venice click white circle above map and click what you want
ilburchiello.it
cruise down the brenta river
crepes house by pepe on facebook
sweet and savory crepes in the canareggio, fondamenta san giobbi
alongdustyroads.com/ search burano
camacana.com
make/decorate your own venetian mask
take a gondola ride from the side canals, set prices daytime 80E more at sunset
we hired [email protected]. he's the singing gondolier. we brought bottle of prosecco with plastic glasses to celebrate us 4 friends enjoying vacation
this is my novel with so much to see and do and giving you lots of options to investigate. have fun
aloha

Thank you for all these wonderful ideas and things to explore! I always say that half of the adventure is in the planning. Planning can be a lot of work but it is also a lot of fun and makes the experience more exciting! Thanks so much!

So our itinerary is coming more into focus, but some things can still be changed. Your experienced input is welcome.
We will have two weeks in Italy plus travel on either end.

Here is what we have at this time:
- Arrive MXP early morning
- Take train to Milano Centrale and then to Desenzano del Garda, where we will stay for three nights, at lakefront hotel
May take a day trip from here to Verona one of the days at the lake. Thoughts?
- Take train to Venice where we will stay for three nights. Reserved an apartment in Cannaregio.
Get Vaporetto pass for two days. One day take the boat taxi to Murano, Burano, etc.
- Rent a car in Venice and drive to Arezzo
- Stay at agriturismo near Arezzo for 4 nights
Drive around countryside and hill towns. Including visit to Siena.
- Drive to Lucca, staying 3 nights. May stop at San Gimignano on the way. (Thoughts?)
Probably will rent airBnB or similar inside the wall.
Not certain if we should keep the car and visit nearby sights, like the Bridge of the Devil.
This will be our second visit to Lucca, but our friends' first.
Return car in Lucca.
- Take train to Milan for return flight home. One night near airport as we have early flight out.

I appreciate any input that you local experts or experienced travelers have for me on our itinerary.

Thank you!

We love the Cannaregio area of Venice! Safe travels!