My wife and I are planning two weeks in Italy and Switzerland in mid-April. Our tentative itinerary will be Rome, Florence, Venice, either Como or Lugano, then Lucerne, departing Zurich. All travel will be by train. This is our first trip to this area, so we'd appreciate some recommendations to help choose between Como and Lugano.

We'd also like some help on how to allocate days to the various cities, and what the weather might be like.

TIA,
Bob

What a great trip that will be. We used to live in Lucerne and have visited all of these places several times. That said, this is how I would break it up:
Rome 4 days - IMHO, Rome is an amazing city and I could spenda solid week there and still have things left to do. But onward!
Florence - 2 days. Unlike many people, this is not my favorite city in Italy. See the highlights; the Duomo, Uffizi, David, spend a 1/2 day wandering and move on.
Venice - 3 days with lots of wandering built in.
Como - 2 days and take the boat to Bellagio while you are there. I like Como a lot. I find it a nice blend of 'real' city and tourist city. Good shopping and a beautiful area. For me, it far surpasses Lugano which I thought was a bit gray and frenetic...kind of a poor man's Como. Again, just my opinion.
Lucerne - 3 days. Lucerne is absolutely breathtaking from a nature perspective. Take a boat ride to Weggis, go up Rigi or Pilatus, tour the city and try to get a hike in.

Fly out of Zurich.

The weather should be wonderful. In Switzerland, Daytime temps will probably be around 17-20 degrees C which is about mid 60s. Italy will be warmer, perhaps reaching into the 70s, esp. in Rome.

One thing you will take away from this trip is a desire to return...esp. to Northern Italy!

Enjoy,
Jan

I have the exact opposite view of Como...I thought it was dingy and somewhat drab when compared to Lugano, livelier and with more things to do (better shopping, too, EXCEPT for the wonderful Frey silk apparel stores). I did not find the central core of Como all that appealing but really enjoyed central Lugano.
Considering that all your other destinations will be fairly large towns/cities, you might want to consider going to Bellagio on Lake Como or Morcote on Lake Lugano...sample a village atmosphere for a night or two, even though tings will be on the quiet side in April.

If you decide to go to Bellagio you can skip Como completely by taking the train from Milan to Varenna and the 10-minute ferry from Varenna over to Bellagio as an alternative route. You can take a ferry to Como from there or do the reverse route-Varenna-Milan.

Since you are ultimately going on to central Switzerland connections might be easier if you go to Lugano instead of Lake Como.

Go to Lake Como, but stay out of Como itself. Stay in one of Menaggio, Varenna or Bellagio, then you can take the bus to Lugano and a train from there on to Lucerne. We were in both Lake Como and Lugano last May and found Lake Como (and the little towns) far more interesting.

I've stayed in both and love each. They are different - Como more Italian of course which may make it seem less squeaky-clean than Lugano, an Italian-speaking but thoroughly antiseptic Swiss city. Actually each is only a few minutes apart by road or rail so you can easily see both. If budget is a factor, even with Italian Euro inflation, things are much cheaper in Italy.

Bob7105, had you thought of travelling from north to south in the spring? Although it sounds as if your trip won't be all that long, and the sequence might not make that much of a difference in that short time frame, the statistical chances of getting better weather increase if you move from north to south.

I am a nut on practical logistics and agree that Lugano makes more sense in your total routing. And, April is very iffy for weather. I would stay in Lugano and pick a good weather day to bus to Menaggio[one hour] and do the mid-lake triangle from there. If weather is not good, stay in Lugano. The city of Como is not a good option to me. Slojan has good timing.