My wife and I are arriving in Milan and taking two nights before heading east to Venice. We thought that we can stay in Lugano and enjoy some of Switzerland while spending some time in the Italian lake district. We will have a car. We think it may be nicer to stay in Lugano rather than Bellagio/Como and take a day trip there, possibly. Does Lugano have a nice selection of hotels and restaurants? Is it close enough to the lake district to zip in and out? Our departure to Venice will likely be to drop the car off in Milan and take the train to Venice.
Posted by
Green Bay
21145 posts
Duplicate post on "To the Boot"
Posted by
shingle springs, CA, USA
782 posts
Dan, I would go to Como and stay in Varenna which is a one hour drive to Milan at the most,Rick has good hotels there,we personally rented the Villa from the Hotel Olivido and you can board the ferry and go to Bellagio from the Hotel,about 15 minute ride,you will also see the beautiful homes on the Lake.
Mike
Posted by
OP
Toronto, ON, Canada
9 posts
Thanks for the referral. Was Varenna sleepy, did it have decent dinner options?
Posted by
New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
Varenna has a variety of dinner options. I'll have to look up where we went (it was in Rick Steves Italy, which I don't have in front of me now) but it was so good we went both nights we were there. Varenna is definitely sleepy to some extent, as are other nearby places like Bellagio. That's the point - "to see how low you can get your pulse," as Rick says. If you're looking for "excitement" (nightclubs and the like), you're going to the wrong place. I haven't been to Lugano, so I can't compare it; I know it has an airport, so it's definitely larger than Varenna. I will say that as a "city person," I can get bored in smaller places sometimes, but I loved the vibe of Varenna and would gladly return. Edit: I'm now looking at the book, and the restaurant we liked so much was Osteria Quatro Pass.