| Alex |
Sep 17th, 2001 05:13 AM |
We visited Milan and the Lakes last March (2000). It was beautiful at that time - still very quiet. With a whole week and coming from Milan, Lake Maggiorre, Orta and Como are IMO musts. We toured by car, and whilst it would be great to tour by train and ferry, I think we would have missed the convenience and ability to admire the views from the pretty tortuous roads! They are challenging, but not that bad if you concentrate, don't drive too much in the hills at night (I guess you won't do this) and hire an automatic. The roads round the lake shores are fine and not too difficult. The Italians are pretty speedy on these roads. In the off-season, you should note that there are reduced ferries if you were thinking of visiting then. When we went the main palaces on the Borromean Islands were not open - I believe they opne from late March to the end of October. Our favourites were Lake Orta - less touristy, views around Lake Lugano and around Como: Villa D'Este (we didn't stay but you can go round the exquisite gardens for free), Villa Carlotta and Villa Melzi near Bellagio, which have great views as well as lots to see in the gardens. Personally I though Mennagio nicer than Bellagio (perhaps a bit overated). Silvio's restuarant just SW of the town has good fish. We liked Como more than Maggiorre due to its more mountainous scenery, but I would definitely go back to Magiorre also to see the Islands. As we had only 5 nights (6 days), and wanted to visit Milan and Pavia, we didn't go to Garda. I thought that the lure of Verona and the Dolomites would be too much for one trip and have saved this for another time.
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