Lake Como

The train station is at Varenna-Esino and is a direct hourly train from Milano Centrale station. Buy a round trip ticket because there is no ticket facilities at Varenna-Esino and don't forget to validate your tickets coming and going.

Varenna is an ideal place to stay for convenience of train and incredible peace and beauty. Look into hotel du lac or albrego olveido as a start. U can visit bellagio on a quick ferry ride from varenna for the day. Bellagio is more of a shopping mecca and see and be seen place but still a lovely place to visit.

Bellagio is the most upscale of the incredibly beautiful Lake Como area. Take a boat tour and you can even take a day trip to Switzerland by bus. The ride is incredible on the mountain road. If feasible, I would trade-off a day in Milan for an extra day in Venice anytime. It is unique and would take more than one night to walk around and soak in the sights. It may be worth it to trade off one night in Lake Como for extra time in Venice as well.

Last year my parents stayed here on Lake Como ... http://www.lakecomo-hotel-ladarsena.com/
Accessible by public bus from Como, with fabulous lake views, and great rates.

We stayed in Bellagio for 2 nights last summer because I couldn't find a reasonably priced (for my budget) hotel in Varenna for the time we were going. Varenna has the train station--we bought our train tickets to Milan and on to Venice at the travel agency near Varenna's train station. We enjoyed walking around Varenna and Bellagio. Bellagio didn't seem upscale to us, but it is small, and it's pretty quiet at night. Lake Como was fun and relaxing--have a great time!

Julie,

We stayed at 'Albergo Milano', in Varenna last October & enjoyed our stay very much.
We actually stayed at one of the hotel's annex apartments ( Casa Gialla). The price of our stay included a delicious breakfast on the hotel's terrace.
It's very easy to take a ferry & cruise the mid-lake & visit the villages of Bellagio, Menaggio & Lenno.

You may want to purchase the day ticket & you can embark & disembark all day long!

Hotel's website:http://www.varenna.net

Ferry schedules:http://www.navlaghi.it/eng/c_illago.html

Enjoy your trip!

Julie,

Varenna is very easy to reach from MIlan by train. The trip is 1H:03M. As Sam mentioned in the first reply, those are Regionale trains so BE SURE to validate your tickets prior to boarding the train on the day of travel, or you'll risk hefty fines. For the trip outbound from Varenna, you can either purchase your tickets in advance in Milan, or buy from the helpful Tivano Tours office in Varenna.

Varenna is a wonderful, scenic small town, and a great base to explore Bellagio or other parts of the mid-lake area. Do you have the Italy guidebook? If not and you need hotel suggestions, post another note. I'm sure you'd enjoy a few days in Varenna.

Thank you all so much! And jamev13, we also have 2 additional days at the end of the cruise to see more of Venice!