Lake Como and Where Else?
 

Hi all,

My husband and I just returned from Lucerne, Lake Como and Zurich. We loved Lucerne and Lake Como (Tremezzo) and want to return to Lake Como next year. We'd like to fly into Milan and combine Lake Como with one other place for 4 or 5 days (we'll spend 6 days in Lake Como). We'd like somewhere that's a 3 hour or less drive from Malpensa and Tremezzo. I was in Venice many years ago and would happily return, but my husband is turned off by talk of crowds. Same with CT. We love beautiful scenery, walkable towns, good food. I've considered St. Moritz, but there's something about it that doesn't appeal to me and would probably prefer to stay in Italy. As background, most of our European trips have been to France - we love Paris, Normandy, Provence and Nice. We're done with castles. We weren't crazy about Zurich. Pretty city, but not a vacation feel., Any ideas are appreciated. Thank you so much.

While the CT towns do get horribly crowded, there are several other towns in the region which are much better. Rapallo, Santa Margerite and Camogli. They are not as immediately picturesque and built up hill sides like the CT villages, but they are lovely. Portofino is mostly a playground for the very rich but it is still remarkably picturesque and as easy day trip from any of those town. Portovenere, south of the CT is even better. I spent 5 days in Rapallo a couple years ago and it was one of my best vacations. I did day trip to the CT (where I had been previously) and yes, the center of the villages were horribly overrun but I still enjoyed it. And you wouldn't need to even stop there. You could take a boat from Rapallo down to Portovenere and then you'd see the CT from the water (best views). Here's my trip report (scroll halway down to get past the France part of the report).

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...swiss-alps.cfm

Photos - http://www.pbase.com/annforcier/ital...ligurian_coast

There are also many nice towns within easy day trip distance from Milan - Bergamo, Parma, Cremona, Bologna, Verona, etc. You could go to any one of them and day trip to others, or stay in Milan and day trip to some of them.

And Torino. Absolutely beautiful and homogeneous town.
Great food. Even some roman ruins.

And the Dolomites or Bologna and of course Turin/Alba/Barbaresco in Piedmont is a great visit. So many places, so little time.

Thank you! I'll look into them all

Trento, a fabulous town. You stay at the Grand Hotel, take meals at the Antica Trattoria Due Mori. The hotel offers triple rooms and a large included breakfast buffet for €117 per night.

Bookmarking

I'm honestly not sure I understand how your husband could have loved Paris and be turned off by talk of crowds.

We have never found Paris crowded. Busy, yes but not crowded. We avoid going inside places with long lines since we've both been to them years ago -- Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Notre Dame. But for what we like to do -- walk all over the city, gaze at architecture, enjoy the parks and the Seine, eat at outdoor cafes, etc, we have not experienced crowds.