novir

We are an Australian couple planning to visit the Italian Lakes district (as part of a European trip) in April/May next year. We would appreciate information/comments on location and length of time suggested to explore this region. We are not particularly keen on staying in the most touristy or large places but wonder if we could set up a base and travel around to see other areas using public transport as we do not plan to hire a car.

Dayle

Hi novir,

My only advice would be to put the Italian Lakes as late in your trip as possible for the best weather. Mid-May on is the best.

Do you only plan to visit just this part of bella Italia?

bobthenavigator

I agree--put the lakes as late as possible. Your options will be somewhat limited by using rail transport. Read about Stresa on Lago Maggiore and Varenna on Lago Como as viable options by rail.

margo_oz

We stayed near Lake Como about that time 2 years ago, and the weather was perfect.

We rented a small villa outside Bellagio, but had a car. The ferry service on Lake Como is pretty good. We often drove into Bellagio and got a ferry to wherever.

I think there is also a train connection to Varenna
http://www.discovervarenna.com/trave...to_varenna.asp
gives details on how to get to Varenna - it might be a good choice.

adrienne

I stayed in Bellagio for 3 days and then took the hydrofoil to Como City, rented a car and drove to Lake Maggiore for 4 days. Stayed outside Stresa in a smaller town. The train to Stresa requires a change in Milan and takes about 2.5 hours. There may be bus service from Como City to Stresa.

For Lake Como, if arriving by train from Milan then you would get a ticket to Varenna and either stay there or if your preference is Bellagio (my favorite of the towns) then there is a short walk down hill to the ferry dock where you take a ferry to Bellagio. The other nice town with frequent ferry service is Mennagio.

The ferry service around the small towns in this area is very good and I loved buying day tickets to hop on the boats and tour the different towns. There are 2 types of ferries in this area. One goes among Bellagio, Mennagio, and Varenna; the other does a slow loop around the area, stopping in other small towns.

One of the highlights of my stay in Lake Maggiore was the day trip to Lake Orta with a stop at Sacre Monte (chapels dedicated to the life of St. Francis). Lake Orta is just lovely.

http://www.navigazionelaghi.it/eng/com/nlc.html

zeppole

If the spectacular flower gardens of the lakes, most particular Lago di Como, are of interest to you, the flowers begin blooming in early April and continue to May, but fade as the month progresses.

Most people who post on Fodor's stay in the most heavily touristed parts of the lakes -- primarily Lago di Como in Bellagio or very close to it -- or near Stresa in Lago Maggiore and one tiny corner of Lago d'Orta. Few have visited Lago di Garda and most have never heard of Lago Iseo, let alone been to it.

Without a car, you are going to be hard pressed to travel around the lakes exploring, or even between them, since ferry service is slow on the lakes other than Como (and to some extent Garda), and train service is very limited. Bus service can be helpful (there is a bus between Lago Maggiore from the town of Stresa to Lago d'Orta) but it is hard to read bus schedules on the internet and trust their reliability.

All the lakes have different things to offer, and they appeal to different types of tourists (hikers, bikers, relaxers, luxury seekers, garden buffs, wind surfers), so you might want to focus on one lake that suits you best. The Cadogan guides offer very detailed descriptions of all the towns on all the lakes and you might find them very useful (and you may need to by more than one because the lakes are all in different regions). But if you really mean to give the tourists a miss, you'll need to take some chances and head out into the unknown-to-tourists areas. The Red Michelin guide to Italy is great resource for finding lodgings and restaurants on an adventure where you are going without a fixed itinerary.

alihutch

Lake Como will be lovely at that time of year, it can be reached easily by train and has good buses and ferries around the lake. There's a lot of info on this website...

http://www.lakecomoapartment.com/localinfo.shtml

and has information bases around the village of Nesso, which is a great spot between Como and Bellagio and on the bus route.
PS I think that Lake Como is one of the most beautiful places in the world!

caroline_edinburgh

Having stayed a week at Lake Garda last summer (in Malcesine), I wouldn't recommend it. In my 20 years of regular trips to Italy, it's the only part of Italy I haven't liked. It just seemed to have a strange, non-Italian feel to it - possibly because it's popular with British and German package tours.

I would still quite like to see Lake Como but would just go for a spring/autumn weekend, not longer.

novir

Many thanks to all of you for your wonderful and helpful comments. We have a lot of organising to do and your input will help enormously with the planning. The Lakes district we are sure will be a memorable visit. We may post further questions as our planning builds.
Again thanks
novir