Budman

I'm in the initial stages of planning a trip in late May to Lake Como and the Piedmont areas. My thought was to rent an apartment/villa for one week in each area and take day trips, but I'm concerned that a week might be too much for the Lake Como area -- 3-4 days would be sufficient, with one week in Piedmont and the remaining 3-4 days somewhere on the Med coast.

I will definitely have a rental car for the entire trip and don't want to have to drag the kitchen sink from pillar to post. Where would you recommend for a good base in the Lake Como area, and the Piedmont area, and/or the coast area.

Dukey

I would have to agree with many others here that one ideal spot on Lake Como is the so-called mid-lake area where Varenna,Menaggio, and Bellagio are located.

By car they can be fairly easy to reach although for Bellagio (particularly) and Menaggio it may be just as easy to drive to Varenna first and take the car ferry from there.

Deciding in which of the three to stay is an entirely different matter, however and obviously depends on the particular ambience you are looking for.

Dukey

TTT

DeirdreStraughan

How much time is enough or too much in any one area depends on what you like to do. Lake Como offers hiking, shopping (some), sightseeing (villas, mostly), and good eating/drinking. It's also within easy reach of Milan if you want to do mega-shopping and or see sights there - the Duomo, the Last Supper, Castello Sforzesco...

There's also good skiing near Lake Como, nearer in winter than in summer, obviously!

Piedmont is Italy's largest region, and therefore also probably has quite a bit of everything. Which specific area of it did you have in mind?

best regards,
Deirdré Straughan

beginningwithi.com (personal)
www.tvblob.com (work)

Budman

Lake Como - sightseeing and good eating/drinking/ambiance. How much time -- is Bellagio "the" good base.

No Milan except the airport. Will need some place to stay night before flight home.

Piedmont - Wine, drinking/eating, vineyards, wine, eating/drinking, ambiance. What's a good base. Have already decided on Apartment/Villa/B&B for 7 days.

4 days Lake Como before Piedmont?

3 days Lake Maggiore or Lake Lugano after Piedmont?

cmt

Dierdre, you said: <<Piedmont is Italy's largest region, and therefore also probably has quite a bit of everything.>>

Actually, Sicily is the largest region in size (followed by Piedmont and then Sardinia) and Lobardy has the largest in population.

Budman

Great. Now that we have figured out which is the largest region, can anyone else help me.

One concern that I have is that we just got back from Switzerland last month and toured Thun, Brienz, and Luzern. Will the Lake Como area be just more of the same?

bobthenavigator

Budman, I like your plan of 4-7-3 and including more of the lakes. Do not overlook Orta as an option for those last 3 days--only :45 from either Stresa or MXP. You will not get bored at the lakes. I would day trip to Lugano from Como. Bellagio is hard to beat but do not overlook Menaggio with a car---the west side is convenient and a car in bellagio is a hassle.

Dukey

You asked which is the "best" place and all i can say is that it depends on who you ask IMO.

A lot of folks seem to enjoy being in Bellagio which does seem to have the most nightlife as well as restaurants, etc., and, of course, the shopping opportunities.

Menaggio is geographically the largest of the three towns and is quieter at night (as is Varenna).

I've stayed in both Menaggio and in Varenna and enjoyed both. I agree totally with Bob about the car issue.

Big_Red

Regarding Lake Como, if boredom sets in then you can daytrip to Bergamo, Verona or Vicenza or other towns. You should be able work out a train excursion into the Alps. There are many hiking trails around Lake Como (ranging from easy to extreme). There is also a pass into Switzerland that is only open to hikers. One day a week, the WW I Fort in Colico is open.

We spent 4 days on Lake Como last summer. We visited BEllagio, Menaggio, Bellano, Lecco, Aregno, Como and Colico. I would go to Domaso over Dongo.

Varenna, Bellagio and Menaggio are good spots to base from because of the frequency of boat service. You probably want to select accomodations that can give you a parking spot.

owlwoman

Hi Budman! When's the next Fodor's CTG, sorry I missed the last one, was in Orlando drinking lots of wine!

We went to Piedmonte a few years ago and stayed at this wonderful agritourisimo - La Luna e i Falò. If you go to the "initaly.com" website, you can find pictures/descriptions, etc. it was all it appeared to be. Had a wonderful 2 night stay there and it was a great base for visiting Alba, Aqui Terme, etc.

From there we went to Lerici on the Med and stayed four nights at the Hotel Florida w/day trips to the Cinque Terre.

We were there at the same time of year, late May, early June, weather was fabulous and crowds were not bad (did not meet too many Americans), but then again, it was May 2002.....

In the Lake Como region, we stayed in Bellagio and on Lake Garda in Sirmione. Both really nice places with lots to see and do.

Happy planning!

Pam

nessundorma

Como is visually a bit different from the beautiful Swiss Lakes you mentioned, but its towns very much have the feel of lake resort towns, with pleasure being the whole point. Bellagio is the most "touristy," Varenna is the smallest and I think of Menaggio as the busiest and most democratic, just because the road is there and it services much of the rest of the lake.

I agree that Verona and other towns make for interesting day trips if you get bored with the lakes, and that Orta or Stresa (on Lago Maggiore) is a more affordable and pleasant place to sleep for you last night before Malpensa if you have no interest in seeing Milano.

On the Med, I think Camogli is worth considering as a base for pure relaxation. Lerici probably gives you more options for daytripping to Tuscany and other spots of interest if you have a car (and it rains on you, spoiling your beach plans).

Budman

Pam,

The next GTG is on 21 October -- same time/place. We will be announcing it about 1 month in advance. Hope to see you there.

Thanks for your info. I am trying to decide on a place that is reasonably priced and centrally located.

The more I think about it, I'll probably save the Med region for another trip. Too much to see/do in so little time. I don't really want to do a drive-by shooting.

wagsdvm

Hi Budman,

Just returned from a trip to Barolo (Piedmont) and Varenna Italy. Unfortunately, we only had 2 days to spend in each area. Definitely try to ditch the car before Lake Como. We drove from Zurich to Varenna in a day (I hope to post our journal on this website) and my husband nearly imploded once we finally made it to the tiny hotel in Varenna after having driven miles out of our way missing an exit. You should have smelled the rubber we burned driving the Passat's manual up to the "parking lot" at Hotel du lac! Defnitely no need for a car in Varenna -- just walk everywhere or take the ferry to anywhere else on Lake Como.

Piedmont is another story...
We stayed in Barolo and absolutely loved driving around taking in the beautiful scenery and doing some wine tasting. We also managed to find our way to a tiny town with a beer craftsman who was featured in April's Gourmet magazine. (Thought you'd be interested to know, Budman!) You could easily spend 5-7 days in Piedmont, and I would have liked to have had 4 days on Lake Como.

A suggestion may be to follow our subsequent route to the Dolomites and/or Alto Adige area of northwest Italy. Great wine in this region and the mountains are spectacular. We loved our inn (Hotel Uherhof) in Ortesei/St. Ulrich area. Lots of hiking in the area to help work off all those great meals in Barolo and Varenna!

Budman

wagsdvm, thanks for your response. I'm looking at staying in Menaggio for 3-4 days. I'll need the car to get from Zurich to Menaggio, then for day trips around some of the other lake towns like Lugano or wherever else we will go, then on to Piedmont. Will be taking the boat to Bellagio and Varenna for day trips from Menaggio. I'm hoping not to get lost as I will have a GPS, and it worked great in Switzerland. Mapquest says it is a 3-hour drive.

I am definitely spending 7 or more days exploring the Piedmont area. The more I read about it, the more intrigued I get. I love good food & wine. Would be interested in the tiny town with the beer craftsman and reading your trip report.

wagsdvm

Thank God for our rental car's GPS system. We also drove from Zurich and would never have found our hotel in Varenna without it. (The viamichelin maps I printed out for the trip were very unreliable). The drive from Menaggio to Piedmont should be pretty easy with the GPS. Navigating around Milan to Piedmont was very tricky and involved several expressway changes. I will look for that article -- I think it was April 2006 Gourmet -- and other info about Piedmont. We stayed at a modest family-run inn (farmhouse) in Barolo recommended by another fodorite. The proprietress was so helpful in making suggestions for restaurants, driving tours, Barolos, etc. This was so important for us as few locals speak english in the area, and our Italian was very weak (kept morphing into quasi Spanish -- the only other language I know)!

wagsdvm

o.k....I found the article! The town is Piozzo, near Dogliani -- about a 20 minute drive from Barolo. The pub is called Le Baladin and specializes in Belgian ales (www.birreria.com). According to Gourmet, Teo Musso - whom we met - has been crafting amazingly complex beer called Wayan (saison), Nora (made from Egyptian Kamut), and Super Baladin (similar to belgian triple). Teo started to make beer as sort of a joke and in-your-face to the fine winemakers of the area. Turns out he's become a success! Anyway, it was a nice afternoon break from all that barolo and barbera.

Budman

Thanks. I just might take a ride over there for lunch for a couple of brews -- but I can never get enough wine.

Did you find any wineries where you could go in and get some vino da tavola and fill up your empty wine bottles for a Euro or so?

ggmestre

BUDMAN

We were just in Menaggio for 2 nights and wished we had allowed more time there. We booked the Hotel Du Lac thru www.venere.com which is a great site. The Hotel Du Lac has its own parking
garage a short distance from
the hotel and we loved it there!

Budman

ggmestre, thanks for the tip. I looked at the Bellavista, and they said they would not consider booking until Jan 2007.

What price/per night/per room did you pay for Du Lac?