Northern Italy

Hi!
"One base per week" will not be easy. Is Cinque Terre really a must for you? It is a bit of an outlier, and it will not provide a vastly different experience vs. the Amalfi Coast. Also, if you want to see the Dolomites (good call even in October), then you have to stay there.
As it stands, to me your brief requires 5 bases for ~4 nights each:
- Lake Como (incl day trip to Milan, it's worth it): where did you book?
- Dolomites: easiest would be somewhere in Grödental / Val Gardena (such as St. Ulrich / Ortisei)
- Verona, with day trip possibilities to Padua or Lake Garda
- Bologna, with day trip possibilities to Ravenna
- Somewhere along the coast between Genoa and La Spezia: either in the Cinque Terre or, my preference, further west towards Portofino (e.g., S. Margherita Ligure), so that you can also visit other places along the coast, including Genoa itself.

Plus a mandatory final night before your flight.
And you should have the Dolomites towards the beginning of the trip, because the weather there tends to deteriorate significantly towards late October.

Hi there thank you so much for your reply. In Lake Como we are staying at Hotel Tremezzo October 8-12 as our anniversary is on the 10 th and thought it would be nice to be there to celebrate. If CT is like Amalfi I guess it isn’t a must especially if it is inconvenient? I could change dates in Lake Como just thought I would get one place booked. So we should start our trip end of September? Early October?

I always feel that Torino is vastly underrated and uncrowded. Then there’s Albi, Barolo and Barbaresco in the Langhe wine region. Albi celebrates the White Truffle festival in the beginning of October.

We will also be flying into and out of Milan. Also would Alberobello in Puglia be worth a visit?

We spent 6 days in the Cinque Terre last month (October), and it was quite different from our Amalfi visit a few years ago. It was also different from our previous CT stay, way back in June 2001. Now that it’s a National Park, with marked and somewhat maintained hiking trails, it was surprisingly busy. It was as if half of Germany, and all its hikers, were there, visiting for the day or longer. And we saw and heard more Americans there than anywhere else in Italy last month, including Rome. The sightseeing boats going between towns were full. Trains were not as crowded, but there were still plenty of passengers. The area clearly still has lots of allure.

We stayed in an apartment in Riomaggiore. Vernazza was packed, shoulder to shoulder. Restaurant reservations were needed for dinner many places. La Spezia was such a chaotic city to pass through, and not scenic, that I’m glad we stayed in one of the 5 towns. That also serves as a case if you wanted to explore more of the area. Due to storm damage a month earlier, the main walking trail between Vernazza and Monterosso was closed off. Since the other main inter-town trails have been closed for some time, only the Manarola-to-Corniglia main trail was open, along with secondary hiking trails, higher up and steeper/more difficult.

Can’t say what will be open or closed for you a year from now, but October was a decent time to be there. I’d have enjoyed it less in the hot, even busier summer.

The CT isn’t anything like Amalfi but I agree with balso about it being an outlier and so is Alberobello.
Are you asking for recommendations on three locations on where to base yourself? You have reserved a place on Lake Como for four nights and I’m assuming this counts as one base.

Puglia (not just Alberobello) is great, but it doesn't pair well, logistically, with northern Italy. I'd like to have a week or longer in Puglia to see more than just one (extremely picturesque) town.

There's far more to see in northern Italy than can be covered in three weeks, so you'll need to choose what most appeals to you. I like Padua as a base for its own sights as well as side-trips to Vicenza, Ferrara and Verona.

I'm not confident I'd be happy with the weather in northern Italy in October, especially the latter half of the month. The average monthly lows are down in the 40s (F), and I'm cold-natured. For many (maybe most?) travelers, avoiding miserable heat is more important that avoiding cold days. If you haven't done so, you can take a look at actual, historical, day-by-day weather statistics on the website timeanddate.com. I've given you a link to Varenna's weather in October of this year, but multiple years should be checked since weather varies a lot. In the Dolomites, remember that altitude is a huge factor.

Hi Mary Pat I am looking for the best bases to position ourselves for our trip without moving constantly. Lake Como is high on our list so 4 days there to relax and see the towns. So three weeks to fill and have day trips from those bases. I’m just trying to sort what makes the most sense logistically. If CT is to far out of the way I would scratch it and by the sounds of another post looks like it’s extremely busy. Crowds of tourists is not appealing to us but it is Italy so that comes with the territory.

To acraven, Temps in 60’s is no problem for us I can’t stand the heat. I just got back from Iceland and layering at their temps is no problem.

If you are ready to remove CT, then the suggestion to add Torino and surrounding areas (Asti, Alba, Barolo...) is excellent. Torino itself has plenty of great sights for 2-3 days, and is delightfully untouristy by Italian standards. Great food and wine, too.

October is late for the Dolomites. We were in Ortisei (Val Gardena) Sept 27-Oct 11 this year and did not enjoy it as much as our visits which are usually in early September. It wa a hillier, of course, but mostly the problem was that some lifts had closed and seasonal buses had stopped running.

Torino - indeed Piedmont - is lovely in October and we’ve always had great October trips to Liguria. You might look at some of the Ligurian towns north of the Cinque Terre as there is much to explore. We last stayed in Camogli and loved it.

Puglia is an outlier and would take a lot of time to get to. Stay in the north.

You might consider Bolzano or Trento as one base. Three years ago, it was warm when there in early October, warmer than our visit there in late April 2 years prior. Both have interesting museums and sights for at least one day each. To their west is a valley full of apple orchards, mile after mile, for nice drive through countryside. Just north of Bolzano you can visit Dolomites, not far off autostrada is Castelrotto, which I think has lift operating all seasons. West of Bolzano is Merano, where we visited friends. Thermal pools. Chestnut vendors in main square and eat a chestnut heart dessert in restaurant! Drove into mountains northwest to see a small “Otsi” (Ice Man) museum, within view of where he was actually found. Happened to be a sheep show that day. We drove through Dolomite foothills to Venice. Castel Valsugana was a great stop. Ahhh, how I want to travel again!

So many wonderful ideas from all of you! Thank you all for helping me get a good plan. Is Lake Como on everyone’s see list?

Yes, Lake Como is very dramatic with a high mountainous backdrop. You don’t get a lot of sunlight in the Varenna and Bellagio area but the darkness makes it more intriguing.
Another good base to sleep is Verona. From Tremezzina you can walk (20-minutes) to Lenno and take the ferry to Varenna (30-minutes) and hop on the train to Milan (1h 15m) and change trains to get to Verona (1h 30m). If you have an appetite at the Milano Centrale station, the arancini is the best I’ve tasted (buy two per person).
Good day trip options from Verona are Vicenza (45-minutes) and Padua (1h) and reserve tickets for the Scrovegni Chapel before leaving home. Bologna is another doable day trip (1h).
You can then take a train from Verona Porta Nuova to Bolzano/Bozen in the Dolomites (1h 45m). There are plenty of bases to choose from here.

I’m thinking how many choices we have and how wonderful that will be! Our hotel at LC is in Tremezzo I thought it was Bellagio. Should we consider changing sides of the lake?

About visit the Dolomites the problem in October is that days are quite short, so less time for hiking. For that reason we prefer to go there in Spring and Summer, when you can stay out for several hours reaching some wonderful places. Of course: if you like long hikes! If your target is the historical part, than the central valley of Trentino Alto-Adige is a better location than the Dolomites. Trento or Bolzen are two very nice little cities and from there you can reach towns and villages by public transport.
Puglia is wonderful. I'm not sure if Alberobello is the best base for daily excursions by public transport ( I always been there with a car), but in general is plenty of beautiful and peculiar villages and towns all around.
For Emilia-Romagna Bologna is instead a good base, because it's an important train hub. So from there you can reach any city and a lot of towns and villages without special efforts and waste of time.

Traffic through Tremezzo is a bit intrusive, but otherwise it is a very good location - if you found a hotel you like, keep it. Bellaggio is likely to be more $$$.

We “shut down” our hotel in Santa Cristina in the Dolomites on September 26 a few years back (meaning they closed the day we left). We moved from there to a hotel near Tires that says open into October, but we hiked in grey, drizzly weather, and used no lifts. So next year we are going in early September.

Bologna would make a great base for a week. My sister spent 2 weeks there recently and highly recommends it. As a railway hub, it offers short easy connections to Verona, Padua. Parma, Modena, Ferrara, Ravenna. . . . All places you may want to visit. We plan to visit there in March, after Puglia, and I found a lovely apartment for our 4-night stay.

Should we consider changing sides of the lake?

Bellagio is a direct 15-minute ferry ride to Varenna which will be a time saver. You'll have lots of hiking options in Bellagio which you can learn more about at the tourist information office who'll provide maps. I've never been to Tremezzo or Lenno so I can't provide feedback.

The mid lake boat taxi makes all the towns very accessible. The neat thing about being in Tremezzo is you have access to Lake Maggiorie . I love Bellagio but I would totally stay in Tremezzo especially since you found a hotel you like. I don't think you can go wrong. I could easily make Lake Como a base for a week.

I too am planning on visiting Italy next October if covid is more under control. We will be flying into Milan where we will base. We will do day trips to Maggiore, Bergamo and Bologna. Then onto Turin which is not crowded with tourists and has some great art and scenery. The streets are lined with porticos and there are lovely views of the Po. From Turin we are heading south to Sanremo or one of the other towns along the western coast of Liguria. They are just as scenic and not as crowded, also no Americans. Then we go to Mantua and on to Rovereto in Trentino. Trent is not far away and there are some good museums with history and art here. From here we can do day trips to the Dolomites, Lake Garda's northern towns like Arco and Bolzano. I have picked these as they are not overrun by tourists. Frances Mayes has written some very good books about Italian towns off the beaten track. You should read them to get a better idea of what there is to see in the north. CT is just not what it was 20 years ago and having to jostle crowds is not my idea of a fun vacation. The closest I might go to CT is Genoa which although rough in areas has some beautiful pallazo and art. Its suburb of Nervi is something like the Ct area, also Bocadassa.

-Piemonte hill town villages worth a visit. Truffle hunting, winery tours, biking, great food and wine. Relaxing. 2 hours from Turin or Milan by car.