6abc

Hi all,

Has anyone done any hiking on Lake Iseo or Lake Como?

Which lakes, hikes, places to stay are your favorites in the Italian Lake area? What side trips do you enjoy from the Lakes that are reachable by public transportation? Any suggestions of lakeside town to home base in?

We are leaving Oct 11 for an 11 day trip to the Italian Lakes. We have been doing alot of looking at different areas to stay in and this is our tentative plan. Our plan is to Hike and eat and Hike and eat and do a some small town exploring and then Hike and eat some more. Would like to stay in no more than 3 places (2 would be even better) we do not want to rent a car. Just want to relax and slowly enjoy what is around us. We are both in our 60's (boy that was hard to type )

This is what we are thinking of doing so far:
Fly into Milan
Travel to Lake Iseo do an apartment rental in Iseo for 3 night
Move to Menaggio on Lake Como - stay for 5 nights in a rental
That leaves 2 nights we need suggestions for
(We are not locked into these 2 lakes any advise is welcomed) (Anyone have a favorite Hike) We decided to Iseo first because it looked like a great place to chill out after our overseas flight. But if anyone thinks we should start on a different lake first please chime in.

And the last night we will spend in or near Milan for our 9:50 am flight home.

Here are some of my questions:
Best way to get to Iseo from Milan airport (public transportation)
Should we check out another lake for our last 2 days? We were thinking of Chinque Terra but this is not really on my to do list. I know it is very popular but...we enjoy not so popular. I fear it might be crazy like the Amalfi coast was (UGH!)

Or should we travel up north a little more (might not be doable without a car)
We are opened to any suggestion.

Also suggestions on where to stay near Milan airport for a morning flight.

Thanks for any input.

Jean

You can take a series of three trains from Malpensa to Iseo (via Milan and Brescia). The journey takes about 3 hours. From Iseo to Lake Como, you'd have to back-track to Milan and then train north.

But Oct. 11-22 is a little late for exploring the lakes, esp. without a car. The ferries on Como, Garda, Maggiore and Iseo will all be on reduced, off-season schedules and that would impact your hiking options to some extent. You would probably have OK weather, but you could also have rain and cold temps. Here are the ferry links, but you'd want to look at bus schedules as well.

http://www.navigazionelaghi.it/eng/index.asp

http://www.navigazionelagoiseo.it/eng

I'd probably pick two lakes that are closer together or have better transport connections. There is frequent bus service between Menaggio on Lake Como and Lugano on Lake Lugano. It takes about an hour, and the fare is cheap. Lugano's ferries revert to off season timetables on Oct. 31.

http://www.lakelugano.ch/media/57161...zione_2015.pdf

There are several hotel options near Malpensa for your last night. What's your budget?

6abc

Hi Jean thanks for the reply. Airport hotel $150 tops. I know we have had to pay $200 in some places but I feel that is such a waste for an airport hotel.

Ok then we might consider not going to Iseo. They all sounded wonderful and we chose Iseo because it sounded very special.

We were planning on doing Como and staying in Menaggio in an apartment rental. We could do that first for about 5 days. Do you think we will have an issues traveling around Como without a car and getting to some of the trails?

We haven't really researched any places other than the Lakes but since you are telling me this is not the best time of year to visit any other suggestions around the area that would be accessible without a car?

Thanks again for the input. As you can tell our plans are open and I just wanted to keep this trip simple and explore just a small area.

Jean

Menaggio would be less subject to off-season closures of restaurants, etc., as you'd notice in Bellagio, Varenna or many other towns on the lake. But getting to Menaggio is a little less straightforward. You can train to Varenna-Esino (via Milan) and take the short mid-lake ferry to Menaggio. You can train to the town of Como at the bottom of the lake and ferry or bus from there to Menaggio. (It's possible to train from Malpensa to Como without going into Milan.) Which option is "best" depends on how well the different timetables work with each other.

Whether you'd have trouble reaching trailheads obviously depends on how far they are from Menaggio, whether they are close to bus stops, etc. You need to identify some hikes near Menaggio that match your ability and time preferences, and you need to learn more about the bus service.

We've been led on some hikes out of Breglia and Croce which are not reachable by public trans. I'm not sure we would have found the trails on our own, but perhaps a taxi driver would have known. (But you'd have to walk all the way back to Menaggio.) We once had a taxi take us to Magreglio south of Bellagio, and we walked back to town. Most of the hiking we've done out of Varenna started with a drive. There are a few rifugios dotted around the lake, but I'm quite sure they will be closed by mid-October.

If you moved on to Lugano, you could train to Malpensa at the end of your trip.

Is hiking the point of this trip? Or is it just something you would do if time and circumstances allowed? Have you been anywhere else in Italy?

Look at the First Hotel Malpensa near the airport.

dreamon

Check out Gillian Price's book on hiking in the lake Como area. Your local library may have a copy.

6abc

Jean and Dreamon
We have the Cicernone Walking the Italian Lakes book.

Hiking is the main point of the trip. It looks like most of her hikes are near public transportation. And I will stop at the library to see if the Price book is available

Jean our original plan was to start our stay in Menaggio and stay for 5 nights there, so I think we will go back to that. and then we were going to head down to Cinque Terra (but I am not that excited about that area, sounds a bit too touristy) It sounds easier to get there from the airport. I will look at the train directly to Como and see if it works time wise for us.

We have been on a self-guides hike in Tuscany and we did the Amalfi coast on our own.(2 different trips)

I am opened to any ideas at this point . We have nothing set in stone. I know Oct is coming up fast but I don't think we will have too many problems with lodging.

Thanks for the input and if you have any more suggestions please feel free to post.

Jean

Malpensa to somewhere on the CT is not easier. It would take longer and involve more changes than your original idea of heading to Lake Iseo.

Menaggio to somewhere on the Cinque Terre will take over 5 hours. First, you need to ferry or bus to a town with a train station. Then, the train ride involves 2-3 changes. If you have budget constraints, do some lodging searches for your preferred town before you decide.

CT to Malpensa would be a 5 hour journey with multiple train connections.

Temps along the CT will be more moderate, but you still run the risk of rain.

Have you considered going to Sicily instead of Northern Italy? Or Tuscany?

I was recently sent an article about Anello del Rinascimento which is a ring of trails around Florence. The second link includes info on access to trailheads. There are mentions of refugios, but you'd have to check whether any would still be open.

http://www.shortescapes.net/escape/4...aissance-ring/

http://www.italiantouristoffice.se/sv/docs/117.pdf

6abc

Thanks Jean,

We are looking into the Florence idea. Our airline tickets are to Milan so Sicily is abit too far to travel to. I guess we will just have to take a chance on the weather in the Lake area.

Thanks for the input. I'll post if we do any of the Florence trails.

ThomasSchwarzmann

Hi 6abc - planning to visit Lake Iseo this summer - did you ever get there? if so, can you suggest public transportation,
places to stay and eat?...appreciated (ps. how can I get in touch with Jean?)

ThomasSchwarzmann

Hi Jean - if you get this, please let me know and I can ask you my questions about visiting Lake Iseo (planning to visit Christo's 'floating piers"...thank you

Jean

Thomas, I'm not sure if I can help. I haven't been to Iseo in almost 15 years, but fire away...

ThomasSchwarzmann

Thanks Jean - the basics: public transportation from Milan airport or rental car, places to stay and eat in that genral area, planning a side trip to Venice, any thoughts/suggestions will help...hope you have a few tips...Tom

Jean

We drove along the lake as part of a long day trip out of Bergamo. We went north up the western side and returned down the eastern side. Our turn-around point was farther north, at Breno I think.

From the description, the Christo exhibit would probably only be visible from the south-eastern shore of the lake, probably only from Sulzano. You can reach Sulzano by train. It's 2-3 changes and about 3 hours from Malpensa. About 2-2.5 hours if you drove. I probably wouldn't contemplate driving that far after landing, but it depends on how long your flight is. You could train to Sulzano for a couple of days, then train to Brescia (about 30 minutes) to rent a car.

For train timetables, search here using Italian spellings:

http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en

I wouldn't consider Venice a "side trip" from Sulzano. It's almost 3 hours each way by train. The first going train option leaves around 6:30a, and the last return train option leaves Venice around 6:00p. If you drove, it would be 2.5-3 hours each way plus time to park at Venice.

sandralist

This morning I was reading this about Lago d'Iseo and thought you might find it interesting.

http://www.italymagazine.com/feature...uide-lake-iseo