kmandrew

Would like some advice, we are flying into FLR - 4 nights - 3 nights free then 3 nights in the Zurich area - fly home. I am trying to decide whether to just spend the middle 3 nights in Milan and do a couple of day trips to the Como area or spend 1 night in Milan then find a hotel on the lake. It seems like a lot of packing and unpacking so I would like to limit our trip to 3 hotels, am I being too stubborn? It is an early June trip so we would have plenty of daylight to do day trips. Not that it matters that much but we are Diamonds so I assume the Hilton property we choose in Milan will treat us right.

Madone59

The only time I spent in Italy was at Lake Varese and loved it. I got the scene that it was a little more affordable than Como. The city of Varese was beautiful, transit from MXP was easy, and accommodations right on the water were awesome.

Perche

The Hilton in downtown Milan is a few blocks from the train station. Nice hotel, terrible location. Not at all pretty or scenic, not easy to walk to any of the places of note. June is a perfect time to spend on Lake Como. No crowds, a little chilly but nice weather. Beautiful. I'd spend the three free nights there, rather in Milan. Not even close. Milan is not really one of the Italian cities that people go to visit. People mainly go there for business or shopping. Lake Como is breathtaking. Just make sure you pick the right town on the lake. And it shouldn't be the town of Como. That's not worth visiting.

kmandrew

Thanks, we decided to skip Milan and book 3 nights in Bellagio - very much looking forward to the trip.

Perche

Great choice. If you can swing it, get a room with a lake front facing view. When you wake up and look out at the beauty, you'll be speechless, breathless almost.

kmandrew

Yes we did book a lake view, the hotel gave us two suggestions on getting to them from Florence.

Take the train to Como then the bus to Bellagio
Take the train to Varenna then the ferry to Bellagio

Plan B sounds like more fun but not sure about the cost/ frequency of the ferry vs the bus?

Perche

Oh, definitely, plan B. From the train station at Milano Centrale you take a local train to Varenna. It's not a very pretty ride, but it's only about 50 minutes and it only costs a couple of euros. The train stop in Varenna is just about a block to the main street of Varenna, and a very short walk to the ferry. The ferry runs frequently, and just takes about 5-10 minutes to get to Bellagio. You really don't want to go to the city of Como. Como is not a nice place, and the bus is no fun at all. The train ferry option is faster, more convenient, more scenic, more fun. I haven't looked at the prices, but I suspect it's also cheaper.

TheBlackMamba

I see you already have chosen for lake Como. If you weren't certain about you lake choice, I would have advised you Lake Maggiore. The castle on 'Isola Bella' is magnificent!

If you want to go to Zurich, I can tell you that Lugano, which is close to Lake Como, has an airport with multiple daily flights to Zurich with Swiss.

bgriz18

Not to hijack the thread but I have the same question...
I have 4 nights in Rome, 4-5 nights Cinque Terre, and then the last 3 nights near Milan. This is for June as well and we depart from MXP around 11am in the morning. Options are

1. Was either thinking of doing 3 nights in Milan, essentially 1 full day to explore the city, and the other full day for a trip to Lake Como.

2. Other thought was to spend all 3 nights at Lake Como and skip Milan. My concern is how difficult is it to go from Lake Como to MXP without a car. And it would be a long commute with bags from Monterosso to Lake Como via trains in one day.

Any suggestions? Nature is more important to me

Perche

3 nights in Milan would almost be torture. It's Italy's second largest city, but unlike Rome, it doesn't have historic ruins, etc. It has the Duomo, which is not the best of them, and DaVinci's Last Supper. It doesn't take 3 days to see one painting. Especially when one considers that you will not be seeing even one brush of Da Vinci's work. It's not a fresco, he didn't paint it on a wall, where the paint gets sucked into the material itself in a few minutes, he tried a new and different technology. The wall started crumbling within 20 years.

They keep re-doing it. In fact, they just re-did it again. Almost every spot of paint has been redone. You are not seeing one dot of DaVinci's brush. In Italy students write their thesis about whether any part of it is still true, and they also compare it with several other paintings that DaVinci or his pupils did of the last supper, and defend their thesis, one against another as to which was the best Last Supper. This is not something worth 3 days. And Milan itself is like coming to the USA and staying in Burbank, Detroit, or Newark.

In my opinion it would be way better to spend it on Lake Como. Of the five towns, Monterosso is the least of them all. It does have easy train access, like Varenna, but there is nothing special about Monterosso just because it is part of Cinque Terre. I'd keep looking for another place. But for the last night, even with an 11AM departure, I'd stay at the MXP Sheraton. It makes it so nice and convenient.

bgriz18

Haha I am cracking up. I appreciate the comparisons. Wasn't planning on exploring Milan for more than 1 full day. But, might just switch it up and do the Sheraton at Lake Como for 2 nights and spend 2 full days there. Then stay at the Sheraton MXP or Moxy MXP prior to the flight.

As for Monterosso I am choosing that as my base for Cinque Terre simply because it has easier access to the beaches. Planning on hiking to all the towns anyway. I am open to suggestions on the town / accommodations there (even Levanto looks interesting).

Perche

Sheraton Lake Como is not a good idea. Lake Como is huge. There are a lot of beautiful, picturesque towns on its shore. The only that is not is the city of Como. It's not picturesque at all. It's large, industrial, somewhat dirty, and not worth spending any time at. Varenna, Bellagio, Menaggio, these are the gorgeous towns. The Sheraton Como is in downtown Como city. Not worth it at all.

Perche

"Frescos were painted on wet plaster. But da Vinci rejected this traditional technique for several reasons. First off, he wanted to achieve a grander luminosity than the fresco method allowed for. But the bigger problem with frescos—as da Vinci saw it—was that they demanded the painter rush to finish his work before the plaster dried.

In order to spend all the time he needed to perfect every detail, da Vinci invented his own technique, using tempera paints on stone. He primed the wall with a material that he hoped would accept the tempera and protect the paint against moisture.

Although the painting itself was beloved, da Vinci's tempera-on-stone experiment was a failure. By the early 16th century, the paint had started to flake and decay, and within 50 years, The Last Supper was a ruin of its former glory. Early restoration attempts only made it worse.

Vibrations from Allied bombings during World War II further contributed to the painting's destruction. Finally, in 1980, a 19-year restoration effort began. The Last Supper was ultimately restored, but it lost much of its original paint along the way.

In 1652, a doorway was added to the wall that holds the painting. Its construction meant that a lower central chunk of the piece—which included Jesus' feet—was lost."

They bring you in groups of 25, and you get to stay for 15 minutes, then you are out. You need to reserve at least two months in advance. I mean, it's great, but unless this is really your thing, it's not really worth having to put up with Milan to see it.

kmandrew

We have kind of settled on Bellagio but will be there for 3 days and I assume spend most of our time on the ferries.

Yes we are going to Zurich on June 11, my wife really wants to travel on the Bernina Express, it looks like we would take the train from Varenna at 11:24, get to Tirano at 12:52 then get on the Express at 2 pm. Could we get some advice on how to buy tickets from the US; when I go to the Italian rail site it does not recognize Zurich? How many days in advance can we book?

Mwenenzi

Ask here http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/europ...il-travel-654/