traveling from Venice to Bellagio/Bellagio to Milan airport

ac,

The methods I'd probably use.....

• Bellagio to MXP (I assume by "Milan Airport" you mean MXP and not LIN?) - take the short Ferry ride (about 20M) from Bellagio to Varenna; walk up the hill to the rail station and take the Regionale to Milano Centrale (about 1H); take the Malpensa Express to MXP (about 50M).
• Venice to Bellagio - take a Freccia train from Venezia Santa Lucia to Milano Centrale (about 2H:35M); transfer to Regionale to Varenna-Esino (about 1H); when you arrive in Varenna, walk down the hill to the Ferry dock in front of Albergo Olivedo, and take the short Ferry ride to Bellagio.

With the Regionale trains, you MUST validate your tickets prior to boarding the trains on the day of travel, or risk hefty fines which will be collected on the spot! I'd suggest buying your return tickets from Bellagio to Milan prior to going there, as it's difficult to buy at the ticket office in Varenna. However, you could also stop at the Tivano Tours office which is just downhill from the station in Varenna and buy return tickets on your way to Bellagio.

Thank you so much for all of this helpful information! I was looking around and also found that we could use fly to lake airport transfer. Do you think this is a better option than using the rail as you suggested?

Bellagiolakecomo.com

Bellagio is in a nice panoramic position but is serviced only by ferry and by relatively slow roads. No trains.

An alternate itinerary to MXP: ferry to Como, walk to the nearby Como Lago Nord local railway station, local train to Saronno, switch to Malpensa Express in Saronno.

It seems like everywhere I am reading it says it akward to purchase a regionale ticket in advanced. What if I already booked my Regionale ticket from Milan Centrale to Varenna through italiarail was this not right? Did I make a mistake? I hope I didn't just waste my money. I was just trying to have everything organized before my trip.

ac,

No, you didn't make a mistake, although you may have paid more for the ticket by purchasing in advance through ItaliaRail. Have you actually printed out the ticket at home, or did they instruct you to retrieve it from a Kiosk when in Italy? AFIAK, the ticket will be pre-validated and must be used within four hours of the scheduled departure time listed or it's worthless.

The reference to Regionale tickets being awkward to purchase applied more to the Trenitalia website for trips that will be taking place more than seven days from now.

Well that trip is not until May 1st. In my email it says ticket will be issued on March 2 2015. Italiarail will send a follow up email on Mar 2 with ticket pickup and validation information. It shows Depart May 1 @ 9.20. So although my ticket has the departure date it's not going to be valid? Because it's after the 7day period?

Can you also tell me why a lot of websites refer to Trenitalia rather than Italiarail? All of my rail tickets have been bought through italiarail (Milan, Venice, Florence, Varenna). Is it a slower train through Italiarail?

ac,

I'll address your second question first.

ItaliaRail is only a ticket broker but the trains are operated by Trenitalia (which is a subsidiary of Ferrovie dello Stato, the state rail network). You'll be using Trenitalia in most cases, regardless of who you bought the tickets from (although in some cases such as the trip from Milan to Varenna, the trains are operated by Tre Nord). There are also some privately owned rail networks such as Italo (high speed service, limited routes) and Circumvesuviana south of Naples.

Regarding your Regionale ticket, it sounds like you'll have to retrieve it when in Italy, probably from a Kiosk (which is the same thing you'd do if buying it locally). It sounds like you'll need to validate the ticket prior to boarding the train on the day of travel, which again is the same as if the ticket had been bought locally. Your ticket will be valid, since is has a specified travel day and time (May 1st at 09:20).