Scenic rail from Milan

David,

If you don't mind a bit of a long day, one scenic trip you might consider is.....

• Travel to Domodossola via direct EC train (~1H:20M).
• Transfer to the scenic Cento Valli Railway to Locarno. The trip is about two hours as I recall, and lots of beautiful scenery.
• Tour around Locarno for a few hours, perhaps with a trip up to Cardada above the city for incredible views!
• Return to Stresa via boat in the late afternoon.
• Travel from Stresa back to Milan (~ an hour or so).

Alternately, you could travel from Locarno back to Milano by regular train (about 2.5 hours, with minimum one change).

You could also take the short trip to Lugano (about one hour) and tour around there, perhaps taking a short cruise on the lake or a trip up the Funicular to Mt. San Salvatore.

Another option would be to travel to Varenna on beautiful Lago di Como and tour around there, including a trip across to Bellagio (the ferry ride is about 20 minutes).

David,

I'd recommend a day trip to Varenna (Lake Como) as it's an easy one hour train ride from Milano Centrale.

Once you arrive in Varenna, you can take ferry boat to Bellagio, Menaggio, Lenno & Tremezzina-- just buy the day pass & you can
hop on & off the ferry boat all day long.

Here is the website for the ferry schedules; http://www.navlaghi.it/eng/c_illago.html

The Spring schedule will not come out till mid-late March.

Why non considering lake Iseo?

The railway runs along the eastern shore of the lake. Rails carve their way through the cliffs overlooking the water.

You can take the train all the way to Pisogne, changing at Brescia. From there you can take a ferry, stop over at Monte Isola for a good lake fish meal (tenches and whitefishes being the local culinary stars) ending up your trip at Iseo. Then walk to the railway station and take a train back to Milan via Brescia.

Please note this is a summertime-only trip, for ferries do not reach the northen tip of the lake (Pisogne, Lovere) in wintertime.

Bergamo is about an hour from Milano by train. Outside the train station are local buses that will take you to Bergamo Alta. You can buy your bus ticket at the tabacchi next to the train station. Buses leave every 10-15 minutes. On the way back to the train station, you can take any bus that stops at the station (I think there is one that does not).