Arriving into Lake Como from Switzerland

Hello. We are planning our trip next summer, which will be based in Italy since our daughter already has a school trip scheduled there.

We're planning to spend about 12 days in Italy, ending in Venice. We have 5-6 more days to play with, and were debating between going to Switzerland for the first time, or going to Milan/Lake Cuomo (also for the first time).

I'm hesitating to add the Switzerland portion onto our trip, out of concerns that it might complicate our travel next summer for Covid-related reasons. I'm worried about things like a difference in entry requirements, extra testing requirements, etc. We are all four fully vaccinated, but who knows what the rules will be concerning that by June 2022?

Since nobody has a crystal ball, I was hoping someone could at least talk about how easy it was to travel between Italy and Switzerland this summer (for vaccinated Americans, if that is relevant).

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give. :)

Hi people,

Planning on visiting both Lake Como and then going into northern Lombardy (Chiavenna as a base, maybe), but not sure how to arrange it or how to manage the car rental in the most efficient way. Our rough itinerary so far looks like this:

- Day 1: Coming from Tuscany, arriving at Lake Como around noon or 2/3 PM (overnight in Varenna)

- Day 2: Around Lake Como, maybe visiting Bellagio / Varenna / hiking around the area.

- Day 3: Around Lake Como, maybe visiting Bellagio / Varenna / hiking around the area.

- Day 4: Going from Varenna to Chiavenna, sightseeing around the area

- Day 5: Visiting Soglio (Switzerland) and maybe other small towns close to Chiavenna.

- Day 6: From Chiavenna to Tirano or Pontresina to take the Bernina Express up to Chur, so we might be able to visit some towns enroute to Pontresina/Tirano during the morning as the Bernina Express leaves Tirano at around 2 PM. We will probably go from Chur to Luzern which is our next step for a couple of nights instead of staying in Chur.

I am not worried about the Lake Como leg of the trip, but how would you arrange the trip from Day 4? We weren´t planning to have a car initially because we would do Lake Como and then move into the Ticino (based in Locarno) in Switzerland. However, we discovered how beautiful the area around Chiavenna is and we are now gravitating towards doing that instead of Ticino, before moving into Lucerne (Bernina Express seems to be an interesting option to connect northern tip of Italy (Tirano) with Chur and then going into Luzern for a long but relaxing day).

Big problem is that there doesn´t seem to be a rental car return place that would suit our itinerary without getting into astronomical fees or a lot of unnecessary driving (or returning in Switzerland which also increases fees), any advice on that and how our rough itinerary looks? We would like to keep unnecessary travel as much as possible and minimize super expensive costs for the car rental.

Thank you!

BREAKING NEWS:

VACCINATED PERSONS ARRIVING IN ITALY FROM CANADA, JAPAN AND THE UNITED STATES STARTING ON AUGUST 31 WILL NEED TO PRESENT A NEGATIVE COVID-19 TEST RESULT

The negative test result, which may be either a PCR or an antigen test, needs to be collected no more than 72 hours prior to ARRIVAL in Italy.

FULLY VACCINATED PERSONS WILL STILL NEED TO PROVIDE A NEGATIVE TEST RESULT.

(Children under the age of 6 can still enter Italy without being tested, and without being vaccinated. Children age 6 and above can still enter Italy without vaccination, but must present a negative test result).

The foregoing requirement applies to all persons who have stayed in or transited through Canada, Japan or the United States in the 14 days prior to entry into Italy.

The new restrictions remain valid through October 25.

https://www.trovanorme.salute.gov.it/norme/renderNormsanPdf?anno=2021&codLeg=82596&parte=1%20&serie=null

THE NEW ENTRY REGULATIONS REMAIN VALID THROUGH OCTOBER 25

Hello, my husband and I (both fully vaccinated) will be in Switzerland for one month (Sept. 21-October 21). We are thinking of extending our trip for 1-2 weeks and visiting Italy because we end up in Lugano, and would be able to take the train to Italy. (We will need to return to Zurich for our flight home, so as to avoid change fees.)

We have been to Italy several times, but have never done anything other than the main cities and tourist areas. We did visit Cinque Terre from Florence on one trip, and did the hike from village to village, and we have visited Lake Como twice, but only on day trips. We also did a vacation in Italy one time that included the Dolomites, Verona and Sienna. We love nature, hiking, quaint villages, pretty beaches, biking. We have never done the countryside in Italy (Tuscany area), seen Portofino or Genoa. Based on when we'd be there (late October), and the fact that we will need to get back to Zurich for our flight home, we don't want to travel as far south as the Amalfi Coast, so we'd appreciate any suggestions for places to visit for 1-2 weeks that are more north. We prefer being able to use public transportation, but are open to car rental, if need be. Really appreciator any advice/suggestions!

Hello all,

We are planning to visit around Lake Como starting from tomorrow (Wednesday - 28 Jul), and we will stay in a hotel near Lecco. However, we just saw in the news that there is a massive flood in the Como area (west shore) that caused many roads to be closed, and it will rain more until Wednesday evening.

Unfortunately, we have a non-refundable booking, and our hotel told us that there is no flood whatsoever around Leko. Is there anyone in the Como area who could tell how bad the situation is? And in case of a weather-related reason like this, is there any way of getting a refund on a non-refundable booking?

Thank you.

I'll be flying from the USA into MXP, landing at 7:30 AM in a few weeks on Thursday. Flight out is Saturday at around 5:00 PM from MXP to France. I mostly want to go to Lake Como, but I was hoping to also see Milan city if possible. I will be using public transport and prefer to stay somewhere that isn't Como city.

If anyone has experience, can you please give some advice on what would be the best way to do this? I was thinking either go straight to Milan and get an early train Friday morning to the lake and then straight to airport Saturday, or go straight to Lake Como and then Milan either late Friday night or super early Saturday and walk around for a few hours before my flight. I am open to skipping Milan if the schedule is too tight - I have already taken pictures in front of many churches and fountains in Europe, and I also don't have interest in museums.

I guess my concerns are using public transportation for such a long trip with a lot of transfers after landing in Milan - I could be held up in immigration for hours and maybe the trains aren't frequent? And also using public transport for a long trip on the same day as my flight out - if I don't make a connection, I could end up stuck somewhere!

Appreciate any insight you can give!

Thank you :)

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?

Hello,

My husband and I want to celebrate our 15th yr anniv and planning on going to Italy. We are both vaccinated. Is it safe to travel there now? If so would you say a lot of the wineries up north are open. We can't decide if we want to go up north to tuscany, florence, lake como, cinque terre, etc or should we do naples and amalfi coast. Our dates are Oct 1-9. Is the weather warm enough for Amalfi coast? I just don't know if everything is open and worth the trip? Any guidance is appreciated. Thank you!

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?

Hello! Our family is planning a trip to Italy in early June. We want to spend 7-10 days there. There are 5 of us, two parents and three kids ages 18-24. We are thinking of flying into Rome and taking the train from there to Florence then Cinque Terre then Venice and flying out of Venice.

1. Does this sound like a reasonable itinerary or is it too much to fit in?

2. I have seen some articles online about some of these places being overrated and crowded. Is this true? Is there somewhere better worth seeing?

Thank you for your help!!