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Travel in northern Italy

Wife and I are traveling to northern Italy late August/early Sept. We want to spend about 3-4 full days in Venice, will be at Lake Garda Sept. 5 - 12 (that's firm) and want to see Lake Como and spend about 3 days at Cinque Terre. Two questions; better to fly (from the states) into Venice or Milan and is train between these areas best way to travel? Any other suggestions welcome.

Posted by
15043 posts

It depends on the sequence of your itinerary and, IMO, on the price.

The int'l airport closest to Venice is VCE
The int'l airport closest to Lake Garda is Verona (VRN)
The int'l airport closest to Lake Como is Milan Linate (LIN) or, a bit farther west, Milan Malpensa (MXP)
The int'l airport closest to the Cinque Terre is Pisa (PSA) or also Genoa (GOA).

You don't specify your home airport, but most flights from/to North American arrive at MXP. As such MXP usually has somewhat lower prices.
VCE has non stops to JFK (Delta) and in summer to PHL (US Air) and ATL (Delta)
PSA has non stops to JFK (Delta) 4 times weekly from June to August.
All other circumstances require a change in some other European hub.

All your destinations are best done by train, except for maybe Lake Garda, which has stations only at Peschiera and Desenzano, on the southern shore. Since IMO the north shore is more beautiful and the lake is very long and large (and buses and boats not that frequent), a rental car wouldn't be a bad investment there. Lake Como can easily be done by train if you stay in Varenna, or across the lake, in Bellagio.
A rental car is a useless hassle in Venice (for obvious reasons) and also at the Cinque Terre.

Posted by
22 posts

We're flying from Atlanta and, even though several months out, the prices at present are a bit cheaper to Milan. At Lake Garda we're staying at Peschiera. We're flexible on whether we go to CT and Venice after or before Peschiera.

Posted by
32173 posts

pleaf,

My suggestion would be to fly inbound to Venice and start your trip there. While it may be cheaper to fly to Milan, keep in mind that will add both time and cost for transportation and will mean a less efficient travel route.

Which town are you planning to stay on Lago di Como? Which of the five Cinque Terre towns will you be staying? Finally, were you planning to use open-jaw flights and depart from a different airport than the one you arrived at?

Posted by
11613 posts

If you decide to fly into Milano, the train to Venice takes a couple of hours and can cost as little as 9€ if you buy far in advance, but a long delay could wipe out that plan and you would have to buy a more expensive ticket.

Posted by
22 posts

Thanks for the replies. At present we'd prefer to fly in and out of the same city. We're flexible on our schedule except for the week at Lake Garda....those dates are set. Not sure where we'll stay in either CT or Lake Como....we usually follow Rick's guidebook advice....never been let down. We should be able to make train reservations well in advance to snag those inexpensive fares. Any other suggestions are welcome.