Long Stay in Lake District / Dolomites

By lake district which of Italy ‘s major northern lakes do you want visit- Maggiore, Como, or Garda? We have been to all three but have returned to Lake Como several times. Choose one lake; all are very scenic. Then you want a second base in the Dolomites and I suggest the town of Ortisei. There is a charming town center with lifts up into mountains to hike. These areas are both beautiful and as you travel into the Dolomites the foods will be a mix of Italian and German such as ravioli stuffed with red cabbage that we have been served. These are two of our favorite areas of Italy.

Following…as I am coordinating a similar long stay but between Verona and the Dolomites.

Maria, I am looking at:
-Trento (Frances Mayes, author of Under the Tuscan Sun” recently said she could live there — she currently has a house in Cortona)
-Bolzano (Rick recommends in his book)
-Castelrotto (Rick recommends in his book)
-Ortisei (I always trust Suki’s recommendations)

Looking forward to comments to your post here,

Malcesine on Garda. Train station at the southern end of the lake, ferry to the village. There is a car/scooter rental business there so you can venture further about.

The Dolomite mountain villages like Ortisei are accessible only by bus. I want to be sure you understand that since you just mentioned trains in your original post. The buses are fine, but a lot of side trips down to the valley towns (like Bressanone, Merano and Trento) would be pretty time-consuming if every trip had to begin with 65 minutes on a bus to Bolzano. If you want to do a lot of hiking from upper elevations, somewhere like Ortisei is ideal; if your focus is more on the towns below, I wouldn't want to spend two weeks at altitude. In addition, lodging will probably be more expensive in the mountain villages. Since you referred to "access to some nature" rather than specifying "hiking", I suspect you might be satisfied with just a few nights up in the mountains in a place like Ortisei and the rest of the time in one of the larger valley towns/cities.

A key point: It can get very hot down in that valley (and up in the mountains in the middle of the day). It's really risky to book lodgings without air conditioning, of which there are many. You can check actual, historical, day-by-day weather statistics on the website timeanddate.com:

Bolzano June 2022
Bolzano June 2021
Bolzano June 2020
Bolzano June 2019
Bolzano June 2018

Ortisei June 2022
Ortisei June 2021
Ortisei June 2020
Ortisei June 2019
Ortisei June 2018

I don't know whether the significant nighttime cooling would be sufficient to allow pleasant sleeping conditions in non-air-conditioned lodgings up in Ortisei (elevation 4035 feet). I can tell you from experience that not having air conditioning in Bressanone (elevation 1800 feet) was pretty miserable. Bolzano's at 860 feet; Merano, at 1066 feet.

You should be able to sleep without air conditioning in Ortisei (and, generally, everywhere over 1000 m in elevation), but maybe in the most extreme conditions (like summer 2003). Bolzano is very hot in summer and Merano unbelievably hot.

Alpine troopers once had a saying: if you like to live like being in hell, go to Trento in summer and to Feltre (near Belluno) in winter.

I was looking at such a trip myself recently. From what I could learn, the ferry from the southern tip of Lake Garda to Malcesine takes about two and a half hours. That's fine as long as you're aware of it ahead of time.

Edited to fix spelling.

Thank you to everyone who posted! We appreciate the advice and your time!