My husband and I are planning a trip in August 2027 to Italy prior to a 7 day cruise from Athens to Rome. We would love to spend a couple of nights in the lakes region, in Varenna or Como. We would also like to spend 1-2 nights in the Cinque Terre area, maybe stay in Monterosso al Mare or Vernazza and also a couple of nights in the Venice or Padua area. I am thinking about flying either into Milan or Venice and then flying flying out to the Athens airport a day or two before our cruise. We will NOT rent a car so we will either travel by train or plane to our destinations. Any advice on what order we should go to the 3 northern areas, airports etc? Thanks!
Posted by
7117 posts
Start by searching flights to every iteration of the combo—into Venice, into Milan, and just for exhaustiveness’ sake, into Pisa and Genoa for CT.
Though if you only have two nights for each stay, I’d consider saving CT and put those nights toward the other stops. You don’t want to be moving around a ton in August heat.
Posted by
Idaho, USA
10168 posts
I agree with the comment above that narrowing it down to two locations would be much better. When you see the times below, you will probably agree. Usually someone who stays in Venice for two days or less ends up not liking Venice because they didn’t get beyond the tourist route, and yes, August will be hot!
Typically the timing is much better to fly into Venice rather than out of Venice. The Marco Polo airport is on the mainland, and you would want to be located on the islands of Venice. Also, I always recommend staying close to an airport the night before a flight. So for Milan’s Malpensa airport, you could either stay at a hotel nearby or no farther away than Milan.
Fly into Venice. Stay 3 nights. Hotel Ala near San Marco is my favorite, plus there’s no bridges between it and the vaporetto stop on the Grand Canal.
4 hour 24 minutes train from Venezia S. Lucia to Varenna (has a transfer at Milano Centrale)
Stay in Varenna for 2 nights.
2 hour 21 minute trains to Malpensa (has a transfer at Milano Centrale)
Fly to Athens the next morning.
If you insist on three locations, I would stay in Verona for one night between Venice & Varenna - a very nice historical city, and it’s on the train route between the two to maximize your short amount of time. In Verona, my favorite is Hotel Bologna just off of Piazza Bra - a lively piazza where the Roman Arena is located.
Posted by
San Diego, California, USA
2270 posts
I think the first thing to keep in mind is that 2 nights somewhere is only one full day there with days of packing, travel and unpacking on either side. I try and avoid spending one night anywhere unless it's for travel logistics like being near an airport the night before. Given that the 5+ hours you'll spend going from Varenna to Cinque Terre makes spending one night there and then travelling 5+ hours to the Venice area is a plan I think you'll regret.
Unless you have 9 or 10 nights extra to spend I'd concentrate on two locations in either the western area or the eastern area. For one I'd fly into Milan and then spend time at either Lake Maggiore or Lake Como and then travel to CT and spend some time there and return to Milan to fly to Athens. Or fly into Venice and spend time at Lake Garda or Lake Iseo and then Padua, Verona, Treviso or whatever appeals to you and then head to Venice airport to fly to Athens.
At a quick glance it looks like both MIlan and Venice have good connections to Athens with maybe a little more choice from Milan. It doesn't look like Florence or Pisa offer good options or I would suggest those airports from CT. Bologna - which is easily reachable from Verona and Padua - may have one flight but Venice is still the clear winner for choice on the Eastern side.
Its sounds like you want some peaceful, picturesque relaxing before your cruise but trying to do too much will definitely kill that feeling moving from place to place every couple of days.
My $.02, have a great trip,
=Tod
Posted by
281 posts
We loved Cinque Terre but it doesn't make sense to travel so far for just one or two nights. I'd focus on Lake Como and Venice.Spend a night in Verona and get tickets for the opera. The venue is spectacular.