Hello everyone,

I will have one day and one night in the Lake District at the end of my 14 day honeymoon. The night before flying out of Milan on September 12, we'll stay by the airport (v. early flight). I am considering staying the second to last night in Menaggio, Varenna or Belaggio. If we wanted to go to Como, will I be required to pay a fee (someone told me 50E) to cross the border into Switzerland? I may just want to plan for that one day in Italy.....or scrap the one day in Lake Region and stay an extra day in the Cinque Terre. We are already planning a N.Italy/Switzerland/Austria trip for 2006!

Thank you!

The fee they are talking about could be a year pass to use the autobahn - every car must have a decal saying they've paid the fee. I don't believe this applies to regular roads but maybe all vehicle need it. But by train there is no fee so it's not a blanket fee.

Assume you are driving but from where?

Oops...sorry..assume you are driving from Cinqu Terre. If so, you won;t have to cross the border into Switzerland to get to Lake Como or any of those three towns mentioned.

It's not the border crossing that you pay! That would be ridiculous!
Just make sure you cross the border via a regular road 'cause driving on the highways in Switzerland involves buying a so-called "vignette" (which is a sticker that allows you to drive on all the highways in Switzerland - it costs 30 euro).

I guess that if you are on the superhighway when crossing the border you will have to pay the road fee. But there is no fee as long as you stay off the superhighway. If you look at a map, you will see that all the towns you mention are within Italy, on the shore of Lake Como.

topping

It does not cost anything to drive from Mennagio into Lugano but we drove back on freeway and they made us paythe 30 euros to go back into Italy.

Yes, you have to stay away from the freeway!