Best options after Venice

Hi Amy, In 2010 my husband and i spent 4 days in Venice and wish we'd had more so you can consider staying in Venice a day or 2 more to fill some of your time. Following Venice we went to Varenna on Lake Como and took a fun cooking class there from Chef Moreno at Ristorante 'il Caminetto' (http://www.ilcaminettoonline.com/lezioni_e.html) Varenna is a beautiful town and great to wander around. Ferry hopping between Menaggio and Belaggio made another great day. and from there...??? I'm a huge fan of Salzburg and Munich! Happy Travels!
-Libby

Actually, late April is not a good time in the Alps, either the Berner Oberland or Chamonix. Think mud season-the snow is mostly gone, the weather cool and possibly rainy, the grass and flowers not out yet. Many hotels and businesses are closed and the lifts may not be running. If you are interested in Switzerland, Lugano, on the south side of the mountains, is supposed to be nice in late April. Luzern should be too; it is at a lower elevation than the Berner Oberland villages but you can see mountains from there. Lugano and Luzern are easily linked by rail in a coule of hours, and at Luzern you have juat over an hour to the Zurich airport.

Good points about the time of year. Thanks for this and other Switzerland suggestions.

Nice recommendations. I'll check those out. Ditto on Salzburg and Munich! However, we got to visit those favorites last year. Best people watching I've ever done, at the Englischer Garten in Munich- wow!
Thank you so much.

I will second the recommendation for Chef Moreno's cooking class at Il Caminetto. We went with our two daughters and all four of us loved it. One of the highlights of our two-week trip to Italy. Chef Moreno is warm, kind, and very knowledgeable, with a subtle sense of humor. Not the flamboyent type, just very genuine.

The info on the cooking class is very helpful- thanks to both of you! Regarding Salzburg and Munich: Ja woll/ yes, indeed! I agree, and we visited last year. Best people-watching I ever did was at the Englischer Garten in Munich- wow! My heart belongs in Austria, too!
So no big votes for French Riviera?

I loved the French Riviera. Nice is a beautiful town, and when I was there, we stayed at Villa la Tour in Old Town Nice - great, clean, small hotel in an awesome location. Also went to Monaco and Eze. I wish I had more time to explore Villefranche-sur-Mer. I felt like the Riviera was the best combination of France and Italy - great food, too! And who doesn't love the Mediterranean?

I like the Riviera very much, but it's a long way to go when there is so much to do in northern Italy. I too would add a day to Venice, or even two if you like a museum..
There is so much in my opinion to do in the Riviera as well, more than you can do in short a time. I thought the Riviera was very special, even with traffic, and easily deserved a week. Do the 4 days for BO or French Riviera include travel time from Italy to Nice and then to a Swiss airport- so really you have only 2 days there? Perhaps you could fly out of Milan and save some travel time.

Hahnna, thanks for the recommendations! Melissa, if choosing FR, we now realize that even flying out of Nice would work well. You're right, we wouldn't want to fly out of Zurich in that case. So the 4 days would be better utilized. What else do you like to do in northern Italy? Sooo difficult to choose! Thanks, everyone!

Amy, last December we spent 4 days/3 nights in Venice and the same in Milan. We wished we had more days in each of those places as well as in the smaller towns along the way ( we had a car but trains are fine). We could have very happy doing more lollygagging in both rather than a destination each day. RS doesn't like Milan too much but I did. I enjoyed the window decorations and shopping in the Golden Quadrilateral, the Ambrosiana Library and Art Museum, The Last Supper, the Sforza Castle, the Duomo, and much more. The food is great also as is the gelato- but you knew that. I like Egyptian art & Torino is 90 min away with the second best collection in the world.
You have time for a quick Lake visit if you don't go to the Riviera. Milan is very close to the Med if you simply must put your feet into the water. In my case, the Med is August is still too cold for me to enjoy a swim: BRRR!

Just wanted to agree with the people who recommended Chef Moreno's cooking class in Varenna at Lake Como. Have you been to Verona? It is only an hour from Venice, but an entirely different experience. I enjoyed it very much.

Andrea's right - take a look at Verona. It is one of my favorites. Lake Como, then to Milan and home from there.

I would vote for the FR given that it is April, and hope for warm weather. I would pick up a car at the airport in Nice and head to the smaller villages and towns along the Riviera as well as up into the mountains. At that time of year with a car you should be able to just drive and find a place quite easily without reservations and just explore that beautiful area. You can then return the car to Nice and fly home.

This might be a good time to get online with car rental and estimate the cost of a car including the expensive insurance and drop off fees. It's fun to drive these places but the looking for parking and paying parking costs are not so fun.
That might help you decide.

Thank you all so very much for your helpful input!! Looks like BO will be saved for another year in a warmer, greener month, thanks to your insight and experience. Chef Moreno will soon be on our itinerary if his schedule allows- thanks again for your recommendations with so many confirmations! I will check out Verona, as well. Regarding FR (if we have time): although it may be chilly, we don't need to swim. We just really enjoy seeing the natural beauty of places, so we still may go for that reason. Points of interest, such as cathedrals, museums, etc. are of some priority to us. Yet, we are gradually realizing that the natural beauty is our favorite priority. We may get to fly out of Milan for a more direct flight instead of Nice (important to one of the four in our group). So perhaps fly into Venice and stay 2-3 days; go to Nice area (via Modena, Parma, Bologna &/or Genoa for meals, snacks and probably a night stop somewhere); enjoy Nice, Monaco, and Villefranche or Eze 2-3 days; Milan and cooking class at Lake Como with Chef Moreno 2-3 days. We would have to add another 2 days to make it fit. If not enough time for FR, consider Verona, but maybe not enough time for that either. I realize that we really should visit only 2-3 places with 7-9 days. We hope to stay longer when the kids are older! However, since we enjoy the beauty of the places over museums, we seem to do okay with more destinations in a limited time frame at this point. I soooo appreciate your advice, everyone. Thank you for taking your time to give us very valuable advice!

I like to keep things relatively close, regionally, so not much time is lost to travel. With that in mind, I might make it two days in Bolgna and another two in Verona (minus the travel time to get to each). You could also end in Milan and fly home from there.