We have an early morning flight out of Milan and will drive up from Venice the day before staying over night at the airport. Are there interesting things to do/see along the way for family of 4 (2 teens) . Thanks

Vicenza - a nice, untouristed Italian town with lots of good architecture.
Verona - A historic Italian city with a Roman ampitheater and has the Romeo & Juliet thing going.
Bergamo - supposed to have a wondeful, historic center. We have not been yet.
Catelrotto(Castelruth) - is supposed to be a wonderful small town, but I think it is too far off of your path.

Some people sleep on Lake Maggiore for next day flights from Malpensa. It depends on how early.

Sirmione on Lake Garda.
I'd second the idea of Bergamo, go up to the historic town.

Sirmione on Lake Garda, an easy 15 minutes from the Autostrada - an historic town, a nice stop for lunch and an afternoon stroll.

You don't say the ages of your teens, but I think that Verona might be the ticket for the whole family. I also think driving to Lago Maggiore and touring the Borromeo islands makes a lot of sense.

Gardaland is either a fun idea or a terrible idea. I leave it up to you.

http://www.gardaland.it/en/home.php

Definitely Bergamo!-But be advised, there are TWO cities there-a "citta alta" (high city) and a "citta bassa" (low city). Don't bother with the low city, go for the high! The high city is where the medieval center (called in Italian the "centro storico&quot -is located and it is lovely -a cobblestoned area in which to walk around-Venice controlled this city (as it did so many others in the Venetian arc) some 3-400 odd years ago, and they built the walls that surround the high city-there are some lovely cathedrals here (Santa Maria Maggiore) and piazzas (Piazza Vecchia) -it's jammed with good places to eat, shops, etc. Many wine bars as well, Bergamo produces some really great local white wine. Highly recommended.

How's the parking in the high city of Bergamo?

I don't know, I've never taken a car-I think you park below in the low city, and walk up.

Thanks. Anybody ever walked up from the low city? How long a walk? How steep?

I want to say it's about a 20-25 minute walk from the train station-there are buses that will take you closer to the high city-although I don't recall if they go up and leave you at a particular point-I walked the whole way, so it couldn't have been too bad.

Thanks!