Need help with 11-day northern Italy itinerary

Jeremy,

Think of your trip in terms of nights not days.

So I counted 9 nights on the ground (not counting travel days).

I'd probably choose option B but with a slight change. I'd go to CT and Lake Maggiore( Stressa) or Lake Garda but not both.

If you are interested in day trip to Switzerland, then Lake Maggiore is a good base.

So your itinerary would look something like this:

MXP > CT (4N) > train to Lake Maggiore (Stressa) (4-5N) with day trip to Switzerland > MXP

Keep in mind that each time you travel from one location to the next, you lose about half of that day.
Also 3 nights = 2 full days on any given location, 4 nights = 3 full days & so on...

Re-read Roberto's response to your previous post regarding visiting Lake Maggiore & surrounding area.

Others will chime in with helpful suggestions.

You need to start booking accommodations ASAP since Summer is a busy season especially in CT & lakes as everyone is trying to escape the heat!

You'll want to read the above post carefully.
Then re-read Roberto's post to your previous question, as suggested above.
For a first trip to Italy, this is a unique itinerary. Nothing wrong with unique, but have you read a book about what else Italy has to offer the first time traveler--are you sure about your destinations.
It's your trip, you get to do it any way you want. We're just trying to help.

If you are flying into MPX it makes sense to go directly to Stresa first, as it is only an hour away by bus.

jeremy,

Of the two latest options, my suggestion would be Option A with some modifications. Perhaps something like this might work for you.....

• D1 - Flight inbound MXP
• D2/N1 - Arrive MXP - Malpensa Express to Milano Centrale and connect with train to Cinque Terre
• D3/N2 - Cinque Terre
• D4/N3 - Cinque Terre
• D5/N1 - Train to Stresa (one of the easiest trips will be a departure from Monterosso at 10:46, arriving Stresa at 16:37 - time 5H:51M, one change at Milano CL.E).
• D6/N2 - Stresa
• D7/N3 - Stresa (you should be able to fit -in a day trip to Locarno in via the Cento Valli Railway, if desired).
• D8/N1 - Travel to Dolomites (you're likely going to need a car for the Dolomites and my preference would be to travel by train to Bolzano and rent the car there, as it will be much quicker especially via Freccia trains - I'd use a departure from Stresa at 09:40, arriving Bolzano at 14:44, two changes in Milan and Verona - however I'll defer to Roberto for the best location to rent a car in that area - you could certainly use San Cassiano as your destination, but you might also consider Ortisei as others have suggested).
• D9/N2 - Dolomites
• D10/N1 - Dolomites and then travel to Venice (you could use a departure from Bolzano at 13:31, arriving Venezia S.L. at 16:40, as that would give you a short time in the Dolomites and some time to get back to Bolzano to return the car).
• D11 - Flight outbound VCE

This is only one suggestion and I'm sure the others will have many more. Given the very short time frame, I suggested trains for the longer journeys as they will be quicker than by car, especially if you're using the Freccia trains which travel at up to 300 kmH. With such a short trip, it's always better to be enjoying Italy rather than seeing it through the windows.

Lake Garda is not an especially "efficient" location for getting about by public transit, so I'd postpone that for a future visit when you'll have more time.

Thanks for the replies everyone! Seems like the consensus is Orta is better than Garda and to probably only consider one of the lakes and not both. In comparing Stressa to Orta, we were more impressed with the things to do around Stressa.

Ken - you suggest trains over renting a car, but trying to figure out if it would truly be faster for any of my trips. When I use the rome2rio.com site people mentioned and I type in MXP to La Spezia or La Spezia to Stresa or Stresa to Bolzano or La Spezia to Bolzano, all of them come up faster by car by usually 2 hours. Am I missing something?

Thanks!

Regionale trains take more time than driving the autostrada if the distance is relatively far, and rome2rio takes connection times into account (I think). Traffic can be a big variable for driving, though.

Hi, I like Option A, but remove one day from Stresa & add it to Venice. Also, I'll throw out a modified version of Option B, reading that you're hoping to do some hiking, sightseeing, winery visits and cooking classes because that doesn't sound like Option A.

Modified Option B:
Day 2 MXP -> Cinque Terre
Day 3 Cinque Terre
Day 4 Cinque Terre
Day 5 Travel to Stresa
Day 6 Stresa
Day 7 Day trip to Switzerland(Sleep in Stresa)
Day 8 Train to Florence (3 hrs)
Day 9 Florence or Siena cooking class
Day 10 Winery visit near Florence
Day 11 Depart from Florence

Jeremy,

Which option did you decide on?

What is your updated itinerary?

When you write this: "When I use the rome2rio.com site people mentioned and I type in MXP to La Spezia",

I presume you plan to go to CT from MXP, so follow Ken's instructions above:
Malpensa Express to Milano Centrale

then transfer to train to CT ( Monterosso?) --use this website: http://www.trenitalia.com

{I'm using Monterosso as an example but you can input the name of village you will be staying at.}

Sample: Malpensa Express (Regionale #10330) leaving from MXP at 9:43am & arriving to Milano Centrale (MC) @10:45am
Train to Monterosso leaving MC at 12:10pm & arriving at Monterosso @ 15:03

If you're going to Stresa after CT. You'd go from Monterosso to Milano Centrale then transfer to train going to Stresa

Hope this helps!

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. We haven't picked an itinerary yet, but we're planning on sitting down in an hour and just picking one.....eager to move on to the next step and feel like we can swirl around forever trying to pick one.

I'm wondering if this is something where I can completely book stuff on my own or I need the assistance of a travel agent. In reading the posts all over this site it seems people on here are strong proponents of booking themselves. How much would people book ahead of time? Obviously hotels and rental cars(if we need any), but what about winery tours or guided tours of certain areas? I see some say to book train tickets ahead of time to save some money, but wondering for the few trips we're taking and only being 2 of us are we really going to save more than a few bucks where it's worth the risk of us deciding we want to stay at a town later? Or is it more of a concern in July when it's crowded that we won't be able to get a train ticket say 20 minutes before the train leaves?

Once we have our itinerary I'll post it then hopefully can get some recommendations on which parts if any I should get a car for and what areas to book the hotels in....we're total noob's so I apologize. I'd rather not get a car of course, I don't mind if the train trip is a bit longer, but just don't want to be stranded somewhere and spend all this time trying to get cabs or whatever.

Jean - thanks for your suggestions - we're going to take a look at Siena and Tuscany and Venice to see if it looks like something we'd be interested in.

Thanks again everyone for all the help!

Jeremy,Figure out your itinerary then start booking your accomodations especially the ones in CT.

Read other posts that will have hotel recommendations or go to booking.com and read reviews.

In CT I'd suggest Monterosso Al Mare since it's the largest village of the CT & thus there's more accommodations, restaurants, etc.

We stayed at Hotel Baia in Monterosso & it was clean & comfortable--right on the beachfront.

Yes, you can wait to buy your tickets there but I'd buy them the day before.