corky

I need some help with planning and also logistics. This is for September. I would like to start in Paris for a couple of days & then fly from Paris to Venice. Ideally 3 nights in Venice. Then on to (via train?) Verona. 1 night in Verona? Then to somewhere in the lake area (again via train)...Como? Bellagio? Where? I want to keep things as simple as possible so transportation as easy as possible. No car rentals or complicated stops. After the one night in Verona I have 3 nights which I think is too much time at a lake. My next stop would be Milan for one night and then fly back to the US from Milan. Is there someplace in between Verona and lakes that I should be visiting and possible spending the night? Maybe I should cut the lakes to two nights and then 2 nights rather than one in Milan. Thanks in advance.

JMN57

Venice -> Verona is easy on the train.
If your flight back to US is in the AM, spend the night before at the Sheraton Malpensa, not Milan. Leaving Milan early AM to make a flight out of Malpensa is not a fun exercise.
Sounds like you have 3 nights - question is what type of experience do you want.
If you want city, take the train (~1:35) from Verona to Florence, spend those days in Florence and take the train last day straight to Malpensa (via Milan) about 3 hours/1 change
Alternatively, Bologna is closer to Firenze (~ hour) and also quicker to Malpensa (2 hours)
If you want more countryside, the lakes (Como or Garda) are good options. If you go to Como (Bellagio, Como, Varenna...) again, go straight to Malpensa last day.
You could do seaside but from Verona and ending up at Malpensa, it's easier to go to a lake for waterfront than the sea.

for those open days, it all comes down to your interests and how you want to treat those days.

corky

Thanks for the tip about the airport. I do want to spend a day in Milan but I guess I could stay at the airport the night before...my flight is at 11am. I don't think I want to go to Bologna. From Verona are any of the lakes easier to get to as I for sure want to go for at least one night and likely 2. I have never been. I notice there is a thread on here with recommendations but I just don't think I need that much time there.

JMN57

Verona is right next to Garda so it would be easy to get to. The two lakes and what's around them are different. You should search the net for some info and factor in what you prefer. This article captures some of the basic differences.

pbiflyer

This, a thousand times this. We had a similar timeframe out of Malpensa. Left 4 hours before our flight and barely made it. We wanted to visit Milan for a day (wasn't worth it really).

corky

Yikes! I will for sure be doing that....11am flight so would really be fighting traffic. Thank you both for that helpful tip.

BillMorrow

I am just about finished planning a month long trip to Italy for the fall. I have been using the Rome2rio website to help with transportation planning. Here is a link that shows the Venice>Verona alternatives. Google maps provides some of the same information, but I don't think that it is as complete.
I am planning on visiting Bellagio as a day trip from Milan. I am taking an early train to Como and then the ferry to Bellagio. The ferry is about a 40 minute ride along the lake. Return will be on the late afternoon ferry. I could return to Como by bus, but want to take more photos on the trip back along the lake(am vs pm light) plus the ferry and the bus take about the same amount of time. Interestingly, when using Rome2rio, the ferry connection does not come up when looking for Verona>Bellagio. It does when Como>Bellagio is chosen.
One further use for Rome2rio is the always asked question of how to get from the airport to.... question. I am staying at the Hilton in Milan. Here is a link for MXP>Hilton Milan

I.CRIS

To be honest, I never understand what people find fascinating about Lake Como. Lake Garda is far more interesting for me.
However I would skip lakes: someone suggested about going to Firenze and I strongly support this suggestion.
I'd reduce the nights in Venezia (max 2), spend 1 night in Verona, go to Firenze (with side trips by train to Pisa or Siena or Arezzo), then direct to MXP Sheraton.

So:
Day1 (hopefully in the morning) is Paris-VCE
D2 Venezia
D3 Venezia to Verona in the early afternoon
D4 Verona to Firenze (+side trips, but based in Firenze) in the early afternoon until the last day when you leave to MXP.

GeoffSmith

Lots of advice, but much depends on details. Have you been to Florence, Pisa, Siena? Will you get the chance to go there another time? Do you like churches, museums, good food, etc. or go watch a game. You appear to spend a lot of time traveling between places. Why not just go to Tuscany and enjoy it. Or just stay in Venice a little longer. Garda is far better than Como. And stay at the airport, Malpensa is hell to get to. Parma is often forgotten, but is a great place to visit and the food is good as well.

sydunipete

Another option is Milano to Como by train, then ferry to Bellagio, then ferry to Varenna (very quaint on the other side of the lake) then train back to Milano. Milano to Como is about 40 mins, Milano to Varenna is just over an hour (but more picturesque), and Como to Bellagio is much longer than Bellagio to Varenna (although the former has more pretty stops at towns along the lake front).

13901

George Clooney is the answer. Not for nothing Garda has always been more famous with the German crowd - who, in all honesty, know their stuff in terms of travelling - and Como has just erupted on the international stage only once the George came around.

I'm thinking of booking Stanley Tucci to do a massive op-ed for Viverone, that'll boost tourism there!

RatherGhastly

Hear, hear! I too disagree with the suggestions of Florence above. If you will never have another chance to visit Florence, then certainly, by all means, but, otherwise, I would leave Florence for another trip, perhaps in combination with Rome. I have an alternative proposal, which may seem a little out of the box, but, given that you're going to start from Paris, and given that you have in mind visiting the lakes, allow me to propose another lake, viz. Lake Geneva!

Could you fly out of Venice instead of Milan? In which case, after doing Paris, rather than flying to Venice, you could take the TGV to Geneva (3 hrs) and spend say two nights there, before continuing by train to Milan (4 hrs). The train basically travels along the entire northern shore of Lake Geneva, before climbing through the western Swiss alps and entering Italy via the Simplon Tunnel—the longest railway tunnel in the world for much of the 20th century—and finally descending along the western shore of Lago Maggiore before finally arriving in Milan, a beautiful journey throughout. (There is in fact one service a day that continues on to Venice, but that leaves Geneva at something like 5:30 a.m., which is no fun at all.) You could then spend the remainder of your days working slowly eastward from Milan, taking in perhaps Verona and Garda along the way, before arriving finally in Venice, whence you would fly back to the U.S., thereby also avoiding the need to spend/waste a night at Malpensa. At any rate, you may already have booked your flights, making my suggestion impracticable, but otherwise, this is what I would do, given the constraints and preferences you mention (or hint at).

13901

Two nights in Geneva it's about one and a half nights too many in my opinion. Switzerland's got a lot more to offer.

RatherGhastly

Yeah, I tend to agree, actually. I'm a slow traveller, and I suppose I nominated Geneva out of convenience as a transfer point, but I did regret saying two nights in Geneva immediately after posting it. Lausanne, along the same route, is a nicer stopping point, for example, but there is no direct train there from Paris. I never like to stop in places for one night, I have to say, given all the attendant hassles of getting to the hotel, etc., and therefore suggested two. As a city, though, I find Geneva rather sterile, but it does have historical significance, it is on Lake Geneva, and, being a (former) physicist, I always like to visit CERN.

beltway

I’m fascinated by all the griping about getting to MXP. I visited Milan once about 9 years ago & found the Malpensa express train reliable & convenient (both arriving & departing). Has something changed?