Northern Italy Intinerary - too much?

Thank you Tom for being polite about your disagreement! I really love Varenna, Florence, and Verona so it's a very difficult choice!

Andy, any destination that you decide on will be excellent--you can't make a bad choice!

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On that, Sharon and I definitely agree.

Andy,

I tend to agree with the others in that this trip is feasible, albeit a bit "rushed". The distances and travel times between the locations you've listed are fairly easy.

I tend to agree with Sharon to some extent about dropping Venice, but it's a very unique location so best to keep it if possible. However, I'd probably drop one day from Venice and add it to one of your other stops (perhaps Florence or Verona).

Happy travels!

I hesitate to suggest this because many will probably disagree with me but, I'd drop Venice for this trip and add a day to Varenna, Verona, and Florence. I really like your plan of seeing ballet at La Scala and an opera in Verona!

I think it's doable, but if your hearts are not set on Lake Como, you will probably feel less rushed if you drop that from the list.

My biggest concern right now is if you have flight problems on the 11th. If you've booked a nonstop, then it's less of a worry, but if anything goes awry you could potentially end up missing the ballet. We once lost a day in London due to missing a connection through Chicago. Fortunately, our show tickets were for the following day (what ended up being the day we actually arrived). Also, depending on how you hold up with jetlag, you might be nodding off through the ballet if you don't sleep well on planes.

As someone who LOVED Lake Como and Varenna in particular, I think you will feel rushed and you'll also miss out on time in Florence which has a lot to fit in for the basically one full day you have there. If you want to see Lake Como, you could do a day trip from Milan, allowing you to catch a much earlier train to Florence the next day (make your June 12 a Milan night, travel to Florence June 13, adding a day there). If you have a very early flight on the 21st you may want to consider staying near the Milan airport, do a search on this site for suggestions on hotels.

Andy, yes, I think it is too ambitious. Almost any itenerary is possible if you want to spend most of your time going to/from train stations, waiting for trains, in transit or checking in and out of hotels. Why not home base somewhere and take day trips or go to fewer places and actually spend enough time in them to enjoy them?

I've done similar trips by car and IMO your trip is a tad much but definitely doable. Just be sure to wake up early every day and have those train schedules well plotted out. And I'll be the first to politely disagree with Sharon. NO WAY should you skip Venice.

Drop a day in Venice in favor of the Florence area. From Florence, there are so many things to do (day trips to Tuscany, for example).

Just to keep things in balance, I'm for dropping most of everything else and adding the time to Venice. ;-)

Thanks for all your feedback. I'm thinking about taking CL's advice on reducing Lake Como to a day trip from Milan and then adding a day to Florence. But will that be enough time for Lake Como? I'm also going to see if we can leave a day earlier from here to give us another day in Florence. Our flight home on the 21st will leave from Milan at 11:15 a.m. Would that give us enough time to get to the airport in Milan if we stayed in Verona the night of the 20th?

Hi Andy,

I think that Varenna on Lake Como is more than a day trip destination! If you can leave home a day or two earlier that would be great!

Andy,

While it's easily possible to visit Varenna and Lago di Como as a day trip from Milan (I made a return day trip visit there last June), I'd suggest at least one night there. That will allow a bit more time to explore not only Varenna but also Bellagio.

If you do decide to visit on a day trip, I'd suggest getting an early start from Milan and return as late as possible (I believe there's a train departing Varenna-Esino at about 21:00). That will allow you some time for a fine hot meal at Albergo Olivedo by the Ferry dock (Laura's Ravioli is excellent!). Dining doesn't open until 19:00 as I recall.

Regarding your question about staying in Verona and then getting to MXP for an 11:15 flight, I wouldn't recommend it. While it might be possible to catch an early train from Verona, that doesn't allow for any "unexpected variables", so there's a greater risk you could miss your flight. If you took the Malpensa Shuttle from Milano Centrale, it could be delayed by traffic or (perish the thought) there could be a strike!

My preference would be to stay in Milan the night before the flight, and use the Malpensa Express which departs from Cadorna Station (rather than Milano Centrale). That way, there will be no worries about traffic. On my visit last year, I bought my ticket the day before travelling so as not to waste any time. If you book a room at Hotel London, it's only about a 5-minute Taxi ride from Cadorna Station (you could also walk from Via Dante in about 15-20 minutes if you're energetic).

Happy travels!