Looking at the tail end of our trip in late spring; we will be getting to Stresa by train from Bologna and staying in Stresa on Lake Maggiore for 3-nights, then spending 3-nights in Varenna on Lake Como, then lastly heading to the Dolomites (Ortesei) for 5-nights before heading down to Marco Polo airport for our trip back home. We are looking to rent a car to use for the portion of our trip from Varenna to Ortesei and then return it at Marco Polo or a close town near the airport (Treviso?) for our last night. Looking at the web and through the RS posts, there really is no car rental in Varenna. Some RS posts suggested to go to Lecco but I could not locate any car rentals in Lecco, maybe things have changed. So, here are two options that I thought I would run by the forum:
Going from Bologna to Stresa by train we go through Milan as well as getting from Stresa to Varenna by train we go through Milan. We can pick up the rental car in Milan. We can do it either on our Bologna to Stresa leg or on our Stresa to Varenna leg. I am thinking of doing in on our Bologna to Stresa leg so we don't have to come down to Milan again. Would we be challenged finding parking in Stresa? Varenna seems to have a large public parking area, correct? This would be end of May. The benefit to this is we can leave directly from Varenna to Ortesei with our car traveling through mountain scenery. Maybe even Stelvio Pass if it's open and we leave early enough to support a more time consuming drive (this would be June 2nd). Of course the con is having to pay 15 or so euro a day to park the car while it sits at the lakes.
Am I missing or not seeing something? Thanks in advance for your insight.
Posted by
Twin Cities of MN
7749 posts
A few years back, we drove thru the Stelvio Pass in mid September. It was a little blustery and cold, but the views were nice. It was a fun day.
Another option would be taking the train to Bergamo and picking up the car there.
Posted by
OP
Seattle
25 posts
@jules m; Thank you very much. Good to hear from someone that has done and enjoyed Stelvio Pass. I'm hoping we can swing it. I thought of Bergamo but it's even further south than Lecco so creates more backtracking if we want to drive a mountain route to Ortesei. I think we are landing on picking up the rental car in Milan on our way to Varenna.