We have flights booked into Milan and are planning on spending about a week in the northern part of Italy, before heading south to Tuscany for a wedding.
We are looking for suggestions on touring that area.
Posted by
San Diego, California, USA
1859 posts
Hello leonlem1, and welcome to the forum,
What are your interests? What are you looking to see/do/experience?
The big cities are Milan, Bologna, Venice with Turin to the north and slightly smaller Bergamo, Brescia, Verona. There are the three big, famous Italian lakes Como, Garda, Maggiore as well as mountains and coastline.
If you narrow your request you'll get better suggestions,
=Tod
Posted by
Seattle, WA
717 posts
Look into Piano City in Milan, a 3-day piano festival - classical and jazz - with many small and larger free concerts throughout the city, in parks, homes, recital halls and other venues. May 15-17, 2026. Perhaps that works with your schedule. See, https://pianocitymilano.it/?lang=en
We were in Milan for three nights at the end of our trip in May 2015. I was kicking myself for scheduling that long in Milan. We did not need two whole days to see The Last Supper, the Duomo and the Galleria, after all. Then we met a local couple on our first night in Milan and they asked whether we were aware of Piano City. It transformed our visit into a delightful spring weekend filled with music … in addition to the aforementioned sights (plus a nice visit to the Biblioteca Pinoteca Accademia).
You will of course get countless suggestions for Lake Como, Lake Garda, Emilio Romagna (Parma, Modena, Bologna), the Dolomites, Verona and more. Too much to see and do in just one week, but I thought I’d mention Piano City for your consideration.
Posted by
Florida
16 posts
We thoroughly enjoyed Padua, learning about St. Anthony (and his tongue), the university with the seat of Galileo, the Scovigni Chapel with the amazing frescos by Giotto, and of course the spritz's. Day trip to Valdobbiadene for prosecco tasting.
Bergamo is amazing too.
Turin has the shroud, of course, but also a very enjoyable town (the Paris of Italy). Highly recommend Bicerin and the Lavazza tour.
Posted by
Massachusetts, USA
2142 posts
We enjoyed 3 nights in Milan even without Piano City, and we weren't able to get The Last Supper Tickets. So what did we do? We had a guided tour of the Duomo and the rooftop. Then visited the Museo Duomo. And we also enjoyed wandering through the Galleria. And we spent lots of time exploring the Brera district which is very pretty and artsy with lots of boutique shops, street markets, cafes, and restaurants. We couldn't get tickets for Pinacoteca Brera because it was the first Sunday of the month, which is free Sunday, but you still need to order admission tickets online, which I didn't realize.
We were never bored, and we genuinely liked Milan. It was fun just wandering and exploring different neighborhoods.
A week is really not a lot of time. You could visit the lakes region. We enjoyed staying in Varenna. We also loved Verona. If you like wine, you could take a wine tour of the Valpolicella wine region if you stay in Verona. We didn't have time to visit Bergamo but I understand a lot of people like Bergamo. We also loved Parma, which is about a one hour train ride from Milan. You could spend several nights in Parma and take a daytrip by train to Modena.
There are lots of choices. It all depends on your interests.