Various day trips from Milan for seniors

Florence is very compact and train station right in historic center. No HOHO bus as the center is mostly pedestrianized.

Verona- train station not near center but if you take a taxi in to the historic area it is walkable and compact. There is a HOHO bus in Verona that we found useful for the outlying sites (I had mobility issues at the time)

Bologna- train station not in center- same as above although sites in Bologna are more spread out. There is also a fairly useful HOHO bus and a little tourist train

Not familiar with Turin or Brescia

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Verona is city center is flat and mostly pedestrian. The old core of the city - based in the Roman city - is small and easily accessible. The city has an arty, chic, cafe culture feel with an intact Roman Arena and Theater, several interesting churches and much upscale and boutique shopping. The Roman Theater is built on the hillside and is combined with the archeological museum but is probably best skipped because if runs very much uphill from the street entrance. Whenever you feel like sitting in Verona there is a cafe with outdoor seating not more than a few feet away.

Take a cab or a bus from the train station 10 minutes to Piazza Bra - the huge piazza with the arena in it - and explore from there. If you take the bus don't miss the Roman gate that still stands at the entrance to P. Bra. There is a taxi stand in Piazza Erbe when you want to head back to the station. AppTaxi works well for the taxis in the city and Google maps does a good job with the buses.

Brescia is very interesting city with a whole series of connected grand piazzas that organically spill into one another. They also have some amazing Roman ruins where you actually get to enter an ancient temple space, see the other fallen temples filled with various pieces of statues and texts. Continue down to the Santa Giulia Museum which is interesting but the basement is actually in situ mosaics and rooms from a Roman bath. Some of the "museum" walls are actually old Roman walls from the excavation. Brescia is a kind of walking city but there is no rush or definite plan involved. There is also a huge castle on top of the hill that is interesting but the walk up is a hike up the stairs. I would take a cab if you want to see it because the castle is so large inside there is yet more walking.

Take the metro from the train station one stop to Vittoria station. It won't save you too much walking but the walk is boring like walking through a business park anywhere in the world and Vittoria station drops you right between Piazza del Mercato and Piazza della Vittoria. Explore those before walking onto the Piazza della Loggia and then onto the Piazza Paolo VI with both the old and new churches. (I preferred the old one.) From there it's a few blocks to the Parco archeologico di Brixia romana for the Roman ruins and then another block onto the Santa Giulia Museum. There are yet more piazzas like the parklike Piazza Tebaldo Brusato
and the Piazzale Arnaldo where the young and hip clearly hang out because they were setting up and weren't yet open in the afternoon. If you are interested in Brescia these instructions make more sense looking at a map and you'll get the idea of how the various piazzas are laid out.

Verona is upscale and a fun visit, Brescia was a pleasant surprise and is (I think) very under rated. Florence and Bologna are big cities and I trust you can find many "one day" guides to those cities if you want. Bologna's core is very compact but a ways from the train station. Buses don't serve Bologna's core very well because the streets are too small. Florence is very walkable but a little more spread out. Reserve any tickets for things you want to see in Florence.
App taxi works well in northern cities to call cabs. Verona and Florence have tap in/tap out bus service or bus tickets.

Hope that helps, have a great trip,
=Tod