JMN57

I think if your plan is to spend a night or two in each of these places, it would be crazy.

However, if you find a place to make a base and explore groups of places over a number of days, not so bad.

For example, find some place in Tuscany that you can stay in which is easy to drive to Lucca, San Gimignano, Siena and train into Florence for a day.

Then the trip could be a day in Milano, couple of days in Cinque Terre, down to Tuscany, make a base there for 4-5 days and explore/relax. Drive over to Marche for Urbino/San Marino for a few days (the drive itself is a good part of a day) and then to Bologna for the rest of the time.

If you are in season, you'd be well advised (and have been) to make reservations for lodgings in advance.

kmandrew

Your suggestion is very close to what we are planning, we were able to get seats to FLR, spend around 4/5 days at the Hilton. I realize it is out of the way but with all the perks they give us hard to pass up, probably take 2 day trips. Then up to Lake Como for a week, we like to settle in a bit so any advice on 2 locations to stay would be great. I have been reading lake hotel reviews on TA, obviously plenty of fabulous choices. We will almost certainly fly home from MXP so will skip going to Switzerland, spend the last night in Milan as the AA flights leave around 10 am. Our trip is early June so hopefully a bit ahead of the heavy tourist travel.

ckendall

Spend your last night at the Sheraton Malpensa and you will not regret it. Getting from Milan to MXP to catch a 10am flight means leaving at 6:30 or 7 and hoping that traffic is not bad, versus dining in Milan and going to the airport to sleep and then walking over to the terminal around 8am.

Perche

Strong second on staying at the Sheraton. For Lake Como, Varenna and Bellagio are the two quintessential towns. Bellagio is large enough to go walking around in for quite a while. The problem is, it is loud and massively overrun with tourists in the summer. Varenna is still quaint. One of the main activities on the Lake is to boat from town to town and experience them. There's quite a ferry network. The ferry from Varenna to Bellagio literally takes 5-10 minutes, so staying in Varenna, hanging out in Bellagio and other towns works well. No need to stay in two different towns when on the lake. They're all easily accessible by the quaint and easy ferries. Varianna and Bellagio are two places where, no matter how much extra it costs, it is worth the splurge for a lake front view. Not a lake view, where you may see a thin slice of lake from some side window, but where you open the window, and look at the lake head on. One of the wonders of the world.

Perche

At the risk of beating a dead horse, I will say once again that in my opinion, Trip Advisor is worse than worthless in Italy.

In an article just today they talked about an advertisement in the paper about an agency called Promoutility http://www.dissapore.com/grande-noti...ta-annullata/:

“Salve, le scrivo a nome di Promoutility agenzia di consulenza che si occupa di meglio posizione hotel e ristoranti nei siti di recensioni. Abbiamo la possibilità di far crescere la sua attività in classifica con recensioni genuine e scritte da potenziali veri utenti.

Con solo 10 posizioni positive si sale su siti come Tripadvisor in maniera sostanziale con un immediato aumento dei clienti."

We have the ability to move you up on TA in a substantial manner, with an immediate increase in clients because we know their system, and can do it by just writing 10 fake reviews.

"Risultati garantiti al 1000×1000. Aiutiamo i nostri clienti ad essere visibili.

La stagione estiva è iniziata e l’Italia è presa d’assalto da milioni di turisti, quest’esercito di turisti agguerriti di smartphone non si affida più al consiglio di un conoscente per scegliere un ristorante o un posto dove dormire, clicca su TRIPADVISOR e il primo locale che trovano in cima alla lista con un buon numero di recensioni viene scelto come meta."

We guarantee it 1000x1000 times that we can visibly help you. The summer season brings an assault of tourists using smartphones to detect a restaurant and place to sleep, and they use TripAdvisor to decide.

...We offer to write, "Le recensioni vengono rilasciate una al giorno o una ogni due giorni, in italiano e anche da utenti stranieri, verranno rilasciate tutte recensioni a 5 stelle, prima di pubblicarla, vi verrà mandata in anteprima la recensione al vostro indirizzo email."

We will write one positive review per day in Italian, or one every other day, and duplicate it in other languages for foreigners, always giving you five stars, and you will get to approve our review by email first.

Below are the prices. Recensioni means review. In this context, for 30 fake five star reviews for a restaurant you pay 200 euros. Since most restaurants only have 10-100 reviews, 30 review is a lot, and for the price of dinner for four, a restaurant can jump to the top of the list. This is why TA lists a gelato shop that closes at 2PM as the best restaurant to eat at in all of Rome, and lists true dumps as the best hotels. The effect of 30 reviews is even more pronounced in towns smaller than Rome where their may only be 15-20 legitimate reviews of a place.

I prezzi sono i seguenti:

10 recensioni € 70
20 recensioni € 130
30 recensioni € 200

TA is corrupt beyond measure in Italy. The newspapers in Italy have covered the major fines that TA has received in Italy for tolerating fake reviews, including a recent 700,000 euro fine.

More than that, a few months ago there was another recent article where a newspaper in England invented the name of a fake restaurant in Italy, and used Google earth to chose an obscure police station in a small town in the middle of nowhere as the address, paid for a bunch of fake reviews, and on the basis of those fake reviews the restaurant was ranked by TA as the best restaurant in Italy.

If you want to read that article, it is below, with a picture of the Italian liar, Pinocchio.

The title is, "Ristoranti TripAdvisor | Ci risiamo: La Scaletta è il migliore, peccato sia inventato."

That means, Restaurants of TA, we laugh at the restaurant that they ranked at the top because it was an invented restaurant called, "La Scaletta."

The writers laughed at it because they had previously invented a restaurant called, "Oscar," and with a few well written reviews, wound up getting TA to rank it as the best restaurant in all of Great Britain.

http://www.dissapore.com/grande-noti...p=1&sro_q=2802

TA should not be used in Italy, in my opinion. If you want to make an Italian laugh when you are over there, tell them at your hotel or restaurant that you chose them using TA.

kmandrew

Wow this is a bit severe. What I have done for years regarding TA is generally read 2/3 star reviews, I agree 5 star don't tell you much and 1 star are usually bizarre; 4 star also give some decent info.
For example we stayed at a resort called Grand Lido Braco in Jamaica for 7 nights 10 years in a row, that is 70 nights so you can imagine I know this place pretty well (regretfully now closed), I would read the reviews on TA to get a feel for what is true and found the 2/3 star reviews usually gave the best info, the guests were obviously disappointed but had some good things to say.
A particular review would say "there was mold in the bathroom but the food was great" and give it 3 stars - mold does not bother us.

As far as this trip goes I think we will pick Bellagio to stay for a week, I have several months to pick the right hotel for us. I like the idea of staying in a larger city for strolling around in the evening.

Perche

It may be severe, but here's a link to the article.
In italian: The headline is, "Il ristorante non esiste, ma è primo in classifica. TripAdvisor sotto accusa," The restaurant doesn't exist, but it is classified as the best. TripAdvisor under accusation. http://www.repubblica.it/viaggi/2015.../?ref=HREC1-21

And an english language paper picked it up and you can read it here in english. http://www.thelocal.it/20150623/fake...on-tripadvisor

And the same thing happens over and over. Last year, to prove it's not reliable a group of people pushed up the rankings of a hotel called Regency di Roma by posting reviews of their "stay." The only problem was, the hotel closed down in 2007. The story http://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/201...07/?ref=search

Up In The Air

^

Even without the potential alleged corruption and manipulation of ratings, Trip Advisor is not necessarily a reliable resource in Italy. A visitor from an English-speaking country goes to a restaurant and is served a good meal with charming service at a decent price – and inspired by the limoncello 'on the house' writes a top review; attracting other visitors from English-speaking countries who do the same... A self-fulfilling prophecy. It's true that if the establishment doesn't come up to scratch it won't maintain a high ranking for long – but the point is that there are such a high proportion of restaurants in Italy that serve a good meal with charming service at a decent price, that Trip Advisor ratings and reviews should be taken as no more than a vague indication of places to consider – and certainly not as a bible.

CherylD

Are there hotels you recommend in Varenna with a lake front view?

Perche

Hotel Du Lac. They have rooms with a full on drop dead lake view, rooms with the same view plus a large patio. They also have rooms with a side view of the lake, and rooms without a view, which are not worth it in such a stunning location. It's a great small, hotel, with views to die for. Great bar with a patio, perfect location. It's not a big, fancy resort. It's homey, authentic, and great value for the money. There are other Hotel Du Lacs around Como. Varrena's is the best: http://www.albergodulac.com

CherylD

Thanks - I had tried them, and unfortunately they are fully booked.

Perche

That's too bad. Reservations for most things in Italy are a must, but sometimes we travel without enough notice, and things get booked. I haven't stayed there, I always go for Du Lac, but there is a B&B right next door called Il Giardino sul Lago, or Garden over the Lake. I Imagine that if you get a lake front view the beauty will be the same when you look out of your window as if you were on Du Lac. It's only a small B&B and not a hotel, but I'd consider it. It's also probably hard to get a reservation unless it's way in advance, but it may be worth a shot.