Best way to do 2 days/nights in Lake Como/Milan

Group of 7 including 3 teenagers traveling at the end of June 2022. Flying into Venice and spending 2.5 days there and will finish the trip with 4 days in Rome. Half of the group has been to Italy before, 1st trip to Europe for the other half.

One member of the group wants to meet up with a friend in Milan for a day.

Thinking it might be nice to spend a few days at Lake Como for these reasons -

Would be an easy trip back and forth to Milan for the friend meet up.

Nice relaxation time with swimming, boating, laying out by the lake etc.

Lake Como is gorgeous!

If you were traveling from VCE to Rome and had 3 or 4 days AND needed to spend 1 day in Milan where would you go? Am I on the right track or should we be looking elsewhere?

we're departing to Italy tomorrow. brother and sister in our 30s. all this trip was booked pretty last minute so practically nothing is finalized.

we want to start our trip in the area around the 2 locations I mentioned but can't decide which is better (and we're departing to Italy tomorrow evening so time is short to make up our minds).

we'll be arriving at Malpensa Airport at night (booked a hotel near the airport) and want to go to either Como or Lecco fir about 2 night before returning to Milan.

we'll be using public transport for the entire trip.

as far as transport goes, it doesn't make much difference since the traveling time from the airport to either of them seems similar.

Lecco was my original plan since it seems there are some hikes around which is something that appeals to us.

looking for hikes around como proves more difficult since all search results are about the entire lake como and that's not helping considering we'll be using public transport.

I've read comments here that Lecco is not that attractive of a town. on the other hand it might be less crowded than Como.

I was thinking maybe taking a day and going from Lecco to Varenna and taking the ferry from there to Bellagio and Menaggio.

I can basically the same from Como as well.

but again, can't find any real info on hiking from Como city specifically.

bottom line, I'm confused. I sometimes find that the "prettiest" town us not always the best to stay in.

can you help with any kind of input?

HiUnited has dropped fares to Milan from NYC so we are considering for end of August and then spending a week in Lake Como area with last 2 days in Milan. We will need covid tests for re-entry to the US and won’t have a car. How easy is it to find fast turn around testing in Milan city center? Thanks I’m advance!

Just looking for some additional advice or recommendations - here is what we have so far;

8/26 - Arrive at FCO 745am, will take car service to our hotel (Hotel Martis Palace) to drop luggage and start exploring Rome.

8/27 - Rome. Vatican museum.

8/28 - Rome. Colosseum tour.

8/29 - 710am Fresciarossa train to Milan. Arrives 1050am. Already booked the tickets. Pick up car rental and drive to Lake Como. Staying in Diamond Apartments in Bellagio.

8/30 - More Lake Como. Staying same place.

8/31 - Driving to the Dolomites. Staying at the Hotel Angelo Engel in Ortisei.

9/01 - Dolomites. Won’t bore everyone with the list of hikes, but the hikes and scenic pass drives are the main reason for coming to the area. That and some of the lakes in the area.

9/02 - Dolomites

9/03 - Dolomites

9/04 - Dolomites, then driving back to Milan, staying at the Sheraton airport hotel that is literally in the terminal.

9/05 - 1020am flight back to US.

I think having basically 3 full days/nights in Rome is this plenty. Not sure that a day and a half (2 nights) will give us much time in Lake Como, but we’ve never been and would like to check it out unless someone has a better option. I think our time in Dolomites will give us enough time to do some hikes and explore the area. Obviously I’d rather have weeks to spend in each area, but unfortunately that isn’t an option haha.

Any suggestions or recommendations for these areas?

My wife and I had an a trip planned from Oct 17-25, flying into Florence, traveling up through Cinque Terre, and ending in Lake Como, then flying out of Milan.

But due to airline issues we now have to begin our trip in Milan. I thought "who cares, we'll just reverse the trip" and rebooked our lodgings with that in mind, but (silly me), I've just realized flying out of Florence back to our US-based airport will be a significant headache based on the airline we're locked in with (multiple flights with really tight layovers, so any delay along the chain of flights would completely screw us. That's my nightmare!)

That's causing me to re-evaluate the whole trip! We're already locked into our Como stay from Oct 17-20 because we can't get a refund. But I started thinking, instead of going south maybe we head west from Como into the Dolomites and end our trip in Venice/fly out of Venice?

My wife and I love mountains, hiking, historic architecture, and great coffee/wine. The westward trip ticks those boxes but our travel dates might be a really bad time to visit the Dolomite range, as it looks like most things are closed. Anyone have any experience or insight about those areas at that time of year?

I’m coming in through Milan, picking up a rental car to drive around Piedmont. We fly in/out of Milan and dropping our rental car before a couple days before we fly back to avoid car return stress on the day we fly back.

Instead of heading to the city, it appears Omenga is the same distance from MXP as Milan city center and planning to spend last 2 nights there.

. Any advice on ease of getting a taxi to the airport? Or am i best to just add a day to Piedmont the stay at an airport area hotel the last day? I hate to be in an airport hotel, but not feeling like going into Milan at the end of the trip.

Thoughts?

Hi!

In july, I will fly to Milan Linate Airport (LIN). I have to transfer to Milan Bergamo Airport (BGY) to catch my next flight. I will land at 10:05 AM and my next flight at BGY is at 01:30 PM.

I was wondering if there is an airport shuttle between the two airports? If not, I have to decide wether I'm going with public transport or get an (expensive) taxi. Is public transport from LIN to BGY fast? Is it easy to reach and get on? Can I book a ticket online?

Thank you so much!

First off- this may be a bit of a 'bouncing around' post. Sorry! Trying to keep it clear...

I'm planning a trip for Spring 2022 Italy and France. So far, I have booked:

A) Flight into Rome and out of Paris

B) 3 nights in Rome and the following 4 nights in Cinque Terre (Riomaggiore).

This leaves 8 nights before my flight home.

I planned to get from Rome to Riomaggiore by train, via Florence, but this isn't booked yet.

I had thought after check out in the CT that I would go to Milan on an early bus or train, spend the day, and take a night/sleeper train from Milan to Paris, which I would then make my base, and do day trips here and there. I have been to Paris before, as well as Marseille and Nice. LOVE all three - want to see more of France, but also want to have a home base, to feel less nomadic.

I've found plenty of advice to take the Thello train for this. However, I also saw somewhere credible (of course...I can't find it again to quote here... it was on the Thello or Eurail website or something like that...), it looks like the Thello Paris-Milan/Venice is discontinued. Is this true? Are there any other sleeper train options Milan to Paris? I would really like to be able to do a few hours/day in Milan, but am completely open minded.

As a follow up question - I had thought it may be worth it to get the Eurail global 10 day pass. I believe it's good for 10 random days within a one or two month time period. Is this a better plan, to get me to my base camps, and use for the day trips from Paris, allowing me to do them solo rather than booking viator, or some such tour company?

Appreciate all friendly pieces of advice and responses!

Hi friends,

Due to a reschedule by Alitalia, we fly from Comiso to Milan Linate, landing at 2pm, and have a flight to Rome scheduled for 3pm.

Is this feasible? Is Linate an easy airport to navigate to ensure we don't miss the flight?

Many thanks in advance,

Kieran

Long story short, I had two other trips in planning that my teen daughter eventually vetoed :)

She has requested a culture/sightseeing/city trip over the 'nature' and 'beach' options. She's had a really tough year and with all the anxiety about heading into high school, I would love to make this happen for her. I have about a month to plan this trip, so here's my first attempt at an itinerary. We will be flying in and out of Rome (only option for a direct flight), which we'll be skipping as we have previously visited:

Day 0: overnight flight into Rome, arrive 7:30 am

Day 1: Rome to Naples via high speed train, Napoli, Overnight in Napoli

Day 2: Pompeii tour, Overnight in Napoli

Day 3: Amalfi coast tour (bus tour or private driver), Overnight in Napoli

Day 4: Napoli in the morning, leave for Florence via high speed train, Overnight in Florence

Day 5: Florence, Overnight in Florence

Day 6: Tuscany day trip (bus tour or private driver), Overnight in Florence

Day 7: Train to Cinque Terre w/ stopover in Pisa, Overnight in CT

Day 8: Cinque Terre, Overnight in Cinque Terre

Day 9: Train to Milan, Overnight in Milan

Day 10: Milan in the morning, train to Venice, Overnight in Venice

Day 11: Venice, Overnight in Venice

Day 12: Venice in the morning, Venice to Rome via high speed train or flight, Overnight Rome near airport

Day 13: fly home

Would love to hear your thoughts:

- We like fast paced, but is it too fast paced? Any suggestions?

- I feel like Milan is a bit of a 'detour' and I wonder if it's worth just for one day?

- Should we get TrainItalia passes? Which one?

- I would love to have some flexibility and not prebook hotels in case we want to linger in one area more - is this too much of a risk? (I wouldn't have considered it but i feel like we could 'wing it' this year?)

- Is there anything else I need to pre-book? (ie. tours, transportation, admission tickets, etc).

Thanks all in advance!