Need Suggestions for train friendly itinerary- 3 days in northern Italy/alps

Bergamo is out of question. With the Lecco-Bergamo railway out of work, with bus substitutions, Bergamo is not feasible for traveling to northern destinations.

In any case, you are asking for a lot of conditions. Just consider: Milano to Tirano (where the Swiss Bernina railway starts) is 2 hours and half. Almost any place between Milano and Tirano (for example, Lecco, Varenna, Bellano) qualifies for a reply to your question; but the more you are distant from Milano, the longer the first day trip; and on the contrary, the longer you are distant from Tirano, the longer the other day trip. But in any case you have a lot of road to cover on those day trips, if you want to do both from the same base.

You should cross check the times on the Italian railway and on the Swiss railway, but I believe that leaving very early you may be go from your base to Pontresina or St. Moritz and back, I do not believe you have the time to go all the way to Chur and come back in a single day. The Bernina railway is very slow.

welcome to the Forums.

Have you looked at the other Bernina questions and answers - there are many?

Big question, train from England or are you driving, or are you flying? If flying, which Milan airport (3 are open for consideration, Linate, Malpensa, Bergamo)?

I see that with the wee sproggie and 9 all in you'd rather not drive, but really, how do you plan to get to Milan and how do you expect to return to England? Are you aware that you could fly or take the train into Milan and the train or plane from Zurich back to England?

Do any of your 9 have any mobility difficulties? Steps ok?

We will actually be flying in and out of northwestern Ireland into Milan Bergamo.

Bus would be fine but we don't have enough adults comfortable with driving to get 2 cars.

No mobility issues.

Thank you for the info lachera. Is there another base you would recommend outside of Milan? I'm not fond of the city and hoping for something more quaint. We would also be fine doing 2 nights in one city and two nights elsewhere. Need to end closer to Milan for an early morning flight out of Bergamo.

I can't really reply. The difficult thing is finding a base for the last night; it strictly depends on your departure time and probably if the flight is early enough the last night should be better spent in Bergamo. As I wrote here above, the railway stretch between Lecco (the east tip of the Como lake) and Bergamo is now partially closed, you have to take a train to some intermediate station and then a bus, it takes one hour 10 minutes to reach Bergamo railway station from Lecco, This prevent staying on the lake for an early flight.

Thank you. Learning further, it appears that we will need to stay multiple places to make things work smoothly. We would probably stay in Bergamo the final (4th) night. Perhaps Como nights 2 and 3. As for night 1- perhaps we could go from Milan to Tirano (sleeping in Tirano) and make it easier to get on the Bernini Express the next day? And from what I am learning, maybe only ride part way and back due to time. Does this all sound doable?

I enjoyed staying in Varenna 3 nights and taking the Bernina train from Tirano to Pontresina and back one of the days, spending a couple hours walking around and having a late lunch in Pontresina. I think something like that might work well for your timing (not addressing the night before your flight home).

As I wrote in the first reply, all places along the east shore of the lake may be appropriate: Lecco, Varenna, Bellano, Colico. The more north, the closer to Tirano (so, for example, even Sondrio could be considered). Check the timetables of the Swiss railway to see what is feasible.

It is also possible to do a round trip. Starting from Colico (and all places south of Colico) go to Tirano, take the Swiss train to St. Moritz. You probably can stay a couple hours in St. Moritz if you leave early enough, but not much more (it is not so interesting anyway). Then take a post bus to Chiavenna over the Maloja pass, at Chiavenna there is a short (Italian) railway line connecting back to Colico. If you feel confident to use the Swiss bus is could be an alternative to going back to Tirano.