The last 5-6 days of our Europe tour will be in Northern Italy for our family of 6. (4 kids in 22-25.) Would it be better to travel to 2-3 different places (Lake Como, Florence, Venice for example), or use Milan as a base and do day trips from there? Places of interest would be Cinque Terra, Florence, Venice, Lake Como, Rome, Bologna. I’m trying to minimize the chaos of traveling with 6 but maybe Milan is too far from those sites to be practical (?)
Thanks for any input. I’m open to any suggestions!
Posted by
California 🦋
5298 posts
Thurlbys4,
Do you plan to fly home from Milan, Venice or Rome?
If flying out of Milan, you could consider visiting
Verona, Lake Garda, Padua, Venice, Lake Como or Lake Maggiore. I almost forgot, you could also spend some time in Bergamo, or the Dolomites.
You have many choices to consider!
How many nights will you have for this part of your trip, 7 or 6?
When will you be traveling?
I’d recommend spending your last night in your departure city.
If flying out of Milan, you could spend your last night in Lake Maggiore and take the Alibus directly to Malpensa Airport.
Wishing you a wonderful trip!
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32367 posts
Assuming you're flying outbound from Milan as the previous post mentioned, there are several possible day trip destinations. It would probably be best to choose places that are within about an hour or so from Milan, so that you can maximize your sightseeing time on each day trip and minimize your travel time. A few thoughts on the locations you mentioned.....
- Cinque Terre - not really practical for a day trip as the travel time would be longer, and often involves a couple of train changes. That wouldn't allow much time to see the five towns.
- Florence - possible but it will be about two hours each way, depending on which departure you choose.
- Lake Como - easily possible as the mid-lake town of Varenna is only an hour by direct train from Milano Centrale. From Varenna you can take the ferry across to explore the posh resort of Bellagio (about 20 minutes as I recall).
- Rome - not really practical as it's about 3 hours each way from Milan, even by high speed train.
- Bologna - very possible as it's only an hour or so each way from Milano Centrale via high speed train.
- Lake Maggiore (Stresa) - suggested in the previous reply... easily possible as it's only an hour or so each way from Milan. While there you could take the ferry over and explore the elegant Borromeo Islands.
- Verona - also possible as only an hour or so each way from Milan to Verona Porta Nuova station. It's a beautiful city and of course the location of the fictitious Romeo & Juliet balcony. There's also an impressive Roman amphitheatre which is still used for shows.
Check the Rick Steves Italy guidebook for other suggestions and details on each location.
Hope this helps.
Posted by
Italy
3812 posts
I think you should go on trenitalia.com put Milano Centrale in the "From" box, pick an early hour of departure from the drop-down menu... and start checking the journey times to the cities you are interested in.
Posted by
Irving
3283 posts
From Milan’s central station (Milano Centrale) you can take a direct train (meaning no transfers required): https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html
to Stresa 1h
To Varenna (Lake Como) 1h 15
to Bologna 1h 15m
to Florence (Firenze SM Novella station) 2h
to Venice (Venezia Santa Lucia station [end of line]) 2h 30m
to Cinque Terre 3h
to Rome (Roma Termini station) 3h 15m