I am going to lake como in august and staying two nights in cadennabia and have decided to spend the next two nights in lugano before heading back to milan. has anyone done lugano to milan via lago maggiore? I do not have a car. Can this be done by train or bus and will it take all day? Is there a route that stops in Stresa and the Borromeo islands and is there enough time to do that in one day? Any other recommended stops if there is time? Thanks.

not really - would take all day.

mainline Lugano-Milan trains go via Como but not Maggiore.

You could do: Lugano-Locarno- then cute Centovalli train to Domodossola then mainline via Stresa to Milan but not feasible to have time to get off and do anything.

Car would be no problem i think but not by train it seems.

Como is a fine town and you could hop a boat to Bellagio for a few hours, etc. Luggage storage in Como S Giovanni train station.

Thanks so much for the input. I am trying to be as prepared as possible and was just looking on the Ferrovie del stato home page trying to get schedules but it is all in italian. Do you know a way to get that info in English? Also, do you know the best way to get from Malpensa airport to Cadennabia? I arrive at 9 am. Should I take the train to Milan and connect there to points north or is there a more direct bus that goes from the airport up the west coast of Lake Como? Thanks again.

Hi NC - You can find Trenitalia timetables in English on:

http://www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html

There is an occasional Airport Shuttle bus service between Malpensa and Como. For details see:

http://www.sptcomo.it

The same bus company also operates a services between Menaggio and Lugano (- which would be a convenient option for you from Cadenabbia) - and services up the west side of Lake Como.

For details see the link above.

Hope this helps ...

Steve

For train schedules in English and a user-friendly site go to: www.bahn.de, the German rail web site which has schedules for all of Europe.

Once there click on Int'l guests on the bar at the top and you're all set on the English schedule finding page.

Thanks so much, guys! That is going to complete the puzzle for me. I leave in 4 days! Got the hotels lined up so I'll figure out the transportation and then wing it. I signed up to see DaVinci's Last supper but haven't heard back yet on that. I am staying at the albergetto la-marianna in cadenabbia and have heard fabulous reviews about the culinary achievements in their dining room. I'll report back upon my return.