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-   -   Getting from Marseilles to Bellagio (https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/getting-from-marseilles-to-bellagio-779900/)

irenen Apr 19th, 2009 03:24 AM

Getting from Marseilles to Bellagio
 
I would be grateful for suggestions on how to get from Marseilles, France to Bellagio, Italy. We prefer not to rent a car. We are in our late 50's and pretty fit. But the less hassles the better.

Mimar Apr 19th, 2009 07:19 AM

Well, you could fly from Marseilles to Milano Malpensa. There are several options including Germanwings, which is relatively cheap -- if your travel is on the right days. Then you have to travel by bus and/or train to the town of Como and take the hydrofoil up the lake to Bellagio.

Alternatively, you get yourselves from Marseilles airport to the train station and take a train to Como or Varenna. This trip will require at least 2 or 3 train changes. From Varenna you can walk down the hill and take a ferry across to Bellagio.

It's not easy to get to Bellagio from Marseilles.

Big_Red Apr 19th, 2009 07:44 AM

Marseilles to Varenna (near Bellagio) looks to be 10+ ours by train.

I would think seriously about flying. For destination airports: Malpensa, Linate, and Lugano would all work. Bergamo (orio sera) would work but ground transportation might get involved. For origination airports: Marseilles obviously, but I would think that you could train to Nice and fly on (in a pinch). Most Americans do not realize that Nice is an important, well served airport.

irenen Apr 26th, 2009 05:00 AM

Thank you both for the helpful suggestions. Although it looks close on a map, obviously it's not as easy as I thought. Perhaps we would be better off renting a car. Is the driving easy or hard?

Thank you.

Mimar Apr 26th, 2009 06:05 AM

I looked up the drive on www.viamichelin.com. The quickest route took 6 hours and 20 minutes to drive. And takes you through or by Cannes, Antibes, Nice, Genoa, and Milan.

I doubt there's a rental car office in Bellagio to drop the car off. You probably have to drop it in Como, maybe Menaggio. But you don't really want a car in Bellagio, and I hear the drive up the peninsula to Bellagio is a bit challenging.

Driving in France is easy, not quite so in Italy. But doable.

irenen Apr 28th, 2009 07:30 PM

We are now veering towards train travel. Thinking of getting a train from Marselilles to Nice, then Nice to Milan, where we could spend the night, before setting out to Lake Como the next day.

But I am getting very confused as to how to find out the best and fastest trains, which station in Marseilles and Nice to click on in the Eurorailways web site. When I did a search , it told me that it would take almost as long to get from Marseilles to Nice as from Nice to Milan. Surely this can't be right.

Can anyone suggest the best way to work out how to get from Marseilles to Milan by train, with as little connection time as possible. Or should we overnight in Nice, and start out the next day. Time is not a problem as we have about a week to do what we like and just thought it would be lovely to head over to Lake Como.

I am very grateful for any good advice. I have alwasy found Fodorites advice to be spot on for earlier trips, and hope you can help me again.

julia1 Apr 28th, 2009 09:30 PM

I would take the train from Marseilles to Genoa, change there for Milan. I did it a couple of years ago, can't remember exactly but it seems we changed trains in Nice and Ventimiglia also. You'll want Nice Ville station and Marseilles St. Charles, I should think.

If you have plenty of time, no need to do it in one day. We spent 2 nights in Rapallo en route to Milan and had a day on the water visiting Portofino, Santa Margherita and San Fruttuoso by ferry. It was lovely.

Mimar Apr 29th, 2009 06:17 AM

The most central station in Genoa is Genove P. P. or Genoa Piazza Principe. But a lot of trains go through Genoa Brignole. Genoa is actually slightly off the direct route from Nice to Milan, but you can enjoy the scenic route along the Riviera. (The Italy part is mostly tunnels.)

flanneruk Apr 29th, 2009 06:29 AM

What on earth is Eurorailways?

Is it one of those American scams that give hokey information about European trains to con you into buying some ripoff pass for far more than you need to pay?

Go to a proper site (for cross-border trains in Europe, www.bahn.de). You'll see loads of trains, most taking about 8 hrs. None take anything like as long from Marseilles to Nice as from nice to Milan. Few require you to change in Genoa.

irenen Sep 24th, 2009 04:38 AM

Thank you all for such great advice. We have just returned from a wonderful trip, and all the transport worked perfectly, largely due to the helpful advice from all of you. Flanneruk, thanks so much for the bahn website. It's fabulous for finding, though not booking, European travel. I first used this site to check connections, then used either trenitalia or SCNF. We ended up getting the train from Marseille to Nice, where we stayed 2 nights, then a train from Nice directly to Milan. The a train form Milan to Varenna, folowed by a 15 min ferry to Bellagio. All worked out beautifully. I couldn't have done it without the help of the Fodorites.

irenen Sep 24th, 2009 04:39 AM

oops. Sorry about the spelling mistakes. Should have done a preview first.

Dukey Sep 24th, 2009 06:18 AM

It's fabulous for finding, though not booking, European travel

What???????

irenen Sep 25th, 2009 05:33 PM

What I meant was that from Australia I was not able to purchase tickets for French or italian travel on the bahn site, but I was able to ckeck what were the best connections, and then go to either scnf or trenitalia to purchse tickets online.


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