Lake Como vs Dolomites?

Elana, Lake Como is more water-centered than mountain-centered. On the other hand, Cortina d'Ampezzo (Dolomites) is a very mountain-oriented location (you are in the mountains!) with amazing views and more than plenty opportunities for hiking plus other activities.

I'm not an expert on this region, but as a traveler I'd say the distances and time constraints lend more to a nice trip in the Como/ lake Maggiore area. The Dolomites are too far, and Bolzano is not an ideal base to see the mountains.

another idea for you: Spend two nights in Lake Como and another day on the Bernina Express to St Moritz - the views are supposed to be spectacular. Perhaps spend one of your nights in St Moritz to make the trip leisurely.

Your best bet for visiting the Dolomites would be via rental car.

It's quite a distance from Lake Como, so you'd probably do best taking a train down to Milan and east to Verona or Venice where you can pickup a rental car.
The roads to the north are well paved and easy to navigate.
Another popular area for a beautiful mountain lake is Lake Garda, northwest of Verona.
I suggest you go onto Mapquest or Googlemaps to see the lay of the land.

The Dolomites are different looking mountains than The Alps, but just about as breathtaking scenery. They lean more to being Austrian than Italian in many places--at least in language.

laney,

Considering the fact that you have an early flight, I'd suggest staying in Varenna for two nights and then spending your last night in Milan. How "early" is your flight?

Travel time by train from Bolzano is a minimum of about 3H:15M, plus the time to get to the airport (about an hour). I doubt that will get you to your flight departure on time. If you're staying further up in the Dolomites in places like Castelrotto or Ortisei, you'll have to add time for the bus ride to Bolzano to connect with the train.

Travel time from Varenna to Milano Centrale is 1H:03M, and the earliest departure appears to be at 05:26, arriving Milan at 06:40. The first direct Malpensa Express departure after that is 07:25, arriving Malpensa at 08:17. There are a couple of other departures from Milano Cadorna earlier than that, but you'd have to get from Centale to Cadorna by Taxi or Metro. Keep in mind that if there are any delays with the trains, you could miss your flight, which is why I suggested spending the last night in Milan.

To answer your question, the Dolomites appear to have more of a German/Austria character (IMO). Although it's "officially" a bi-lingual area, I found that German is much more commonly used than Italian. The architecture and buildings such as these in Castelrotto have an alpine appearance more commonly seen in Germany or Switzerland.

Sounds like it would be more trouble to travel to Dolomites than Lake Como from Cinque Terre. I will also be traveling alone and will be on a budget, so I hadn't planed (at least not yet) to rent a car during my trip. I'll be dependent on buses and trains. Sounds like if I were to explore the Dolomites region and get myself to some trail-heads I would need a car. Hmmmm... Good point. Hadn't considered that.

I like that idea of perhaps traveling to St. Moritz for a day from Varenna via the Bernina Express. I did a little research and it looks like I would need to catch the train to Tirano first to catch the Bernina. I wonder if that's a hassle or time-waster. Maybe not? I also read in another forum that St. Moritz wasn't exactly a town to stay in, unless you had lots of $$ and there wasn't a lot to do there. Thoughts?

As for my flight back to the States... The remaining 3 nights I have play with are Sept 28, 29, 30th. I plan to stay in Milan the night of Oct 1st, catching my "early flight" back to the States on Oct 2nd. So I literally have 3 nights to spend elsewhere!

Instead of St Moritz, stay on the Bernina all the way to Chur. The stretch between St Moritz and Chur is my favorite part with the Albula "Merry-Go-Round". It's two 360 deg turns with a 180 deg turn in between them. You'll also go over the Landwasser Viaduct, which is on just about every Swiss travel poster. The city of Chur is interesting and worth a day's visit.
If mountain railway journey's trip your trigger, you could also take the Glacier Express from Chur to Brig before changing to the train through the Simplon Tunnel back to Milan. Stop over in Stresa to get one last Italian Lake in at Lake Maggiore.

A day trip on the Bernina Express may be possible from Varenna (I haven't looked at the timing). I'm not sure you'd have time to go the full route to Chur, as the only departure of the actual Bernina Express with the panorama cars appears to be at 15;03, arriving 19:03. There are other "regular" trains with changes that also travel that route.

There are all kinds of possibilities, but which ones to choose will depend on whether you'd just prefer relaxing in Varenna for your last few days, or spending a lot of time on trains.