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New Years in the North

Posted by (Washington, DC, USA) on

Hi All,

I'm writing to ask for help. My boyfriend and I are looking for a fun way to spend the holidays in the Northern Italy/Switzerland/French border area. The catch? We've never going skiing before and, while it seems fun to try for a day, it seems very expensive to try for the entire trip.

While we've both spent a fair amount of time exploring Europe, neither of us have visited during the winter. Where should non-skiers go for a good time?

Some additional information about us and our trip:

We'll be there about 10 days from right after Christmas to early January. Would enjoy doing some city/town hoping, but we'll be traveling by train or public transit.

We're a young, pretty adventurous couple, so happy spending time outside but equally comfortable touring museums/cathedrals/etc.

Love the B&B atmosphere and have enjoyed renting vacation apartments in the past -- just looking to keep accommodation costs low so we can spend money where it matters...the food! :)

I'd appreciate any suggestions you might have. Thanks so much!

Posted by
267 posts

I just spent 6 days in and around Verona as part of my trip to Italy. I had the luxury of having a local, a friend of mine, show me around quite a bit. Verona itself has a lot of great things to see, and the surrounding areas are beautiful: Lake Garda, Bardolino, and Peschiera are all areas he took us to.
We did the Rick Steves walking tour of Verona one day and spent a good 6 hours doing it. We included the climb up to Castel San Pietro (which he omits from the walking tour, but mentions it) and were rewarded with great views.
We stayed at the Hotel Arena (in Rick's book) which was OK, but pretty noisy inside. The walls are thin, elevator noisy, etc; but they had a good breakfast and the staff was great. Hotel Arena is very close to the best thing, in my opinion, in Verona: The Arena. (www.arena.it), and pretty much in front of Castel Vecchio. Have fun, wherever you go! And validate your train tickets!! (see my post on that...)

Posted by
267 posts

I just spent 6 days in and around Verona as part of my trip to Italy. I had the luxury of having a local, a friend of mine, show me around quite a bit. Verona itself has a lot of great things to see, and the surrounding areas are beautiful: Lake Garda, Bardolino, and Peschiera are all areas he took us to.
We did the Rick Steves walking tour of Verona one day and spent a good 6 hours doing it. We included the climb up to Castel San Pietro (which he omits from the walking tour, but mentions it) and were rewarded with great views.
We stayed at the Hotel Arena (in Rick's book) which was OK, but pretty noisy inside. The walls are thin, elevator noisy, etc; but they had a good breakfast and the staff was great. Hotel Arena is very close to the best thing, in my opinion, in Verona: The Arena. (www.arena.it), and pretty much in front of Castel Vecchio. Have fun, wherever you go! And validate your train tickets!! (see my post on that...)

Posted by
192 posts

The holidays in Italy are magical. You could try staying in one of the towns on lake Como which is close to the Swiss border.

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