Travel to Northern Italy

By mountains, are you referring to the Dolomites? We were there in mid June and it was beautiful, no snow. We hiked up in the mountain valleys reached by gondola, funicular.
The Lakes will be fine in May, June.

But Doug, where were you - mountains or lakes? We were in the Dolomites (Ortisei) June 5-10. We had a little bit of rain and some beautiful sunny days, not too hot at all. It was too hot in Bolzano, though! The only thing "too early" about it is that all the mountain lifts were not yet running. Some were not going to open until June 15. However, with only four days on the ground there, we had plenty of choices to keep us busy. And it is one of the most beautiful places we have ever been. Considering we used to live near the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, that's saying something!

I took the RS Alpine tour 4 years ago in early June. I know there was at least one tour before mine - so that would have been Dolomites in the 3rd week of May.

Thank-you for the replies. We are looking at mountains and lakes. What "do not misses" should we include? We went to Italy this year and visited Rome, Tuscany and Umbria. Just beautiful. Any suggestions appreciated.

This year our European trip included Italy for the 13th time, but it was our first visit to the Dolomites. It may have been partly because we'd done five cities before we got there, but we were overwhelmed by the beauty of the Val Gardena. We were told it had been a very rainy spring and that was why everything was so green, so I guess there are no guarantees, but we would go back in a heartbeat. We have also enjoyed very much our time at several of the lakes. You really can't go wrong with either of these choices.

Janet- Where did you stay? Interested to hear for those that have lodging recommendations.