Another question - we'll be staying in Varenna for a few days, but my sister said we should try to get to Lugano for the fabulous outlet shopping. Is that insane, or is it a quick ferry ride then to Lugano?

pshamrock: I might be missing something, but I do not believe that you can take a ferry from Lake Como to Lugano. They are on 2 different lakes. Also, I've been to Lugano 3 times (as I have a brother ans sister-in-law who live there) and I have never heard or seen of outlet shopping there. In fact, they go to Italy to shop because everything is so much more expensive in Switzerland.<BR><BR>That said, if you happen to have a car, it is a fairly quick trip to Lugano and well worth it. Switzerland is quite different than Italy, even though it is so close in proximity. (It is also possible by train, but I've always had a car so that's the way we've travelled between the two areas.)

I read the post the same way as you bellairegirl, and was about to post the same thing you did, but then I re-read it. It says &quot;a quick ferry ride THEN to Lugano&quot;. Yes, that is the case. I haven't done it, but I noticed schedules while we were there this summer. You can take a quick ferry ride from Varenna to Menaggio, then catch a bus to Lugano. Lugano is surprisingly close.

Yes, that is doable and a good idea. I know nothing about outlets, but Lugano is a wonderful cosmopolitan city and worth your time. Ferry to Mennagio, and then catch the postal bus--either all the way to Lugano in an hour--or, get off in Porlezza and take the Lake Lugano ferry boat that stops at all of the villages on the Lake. It takes longer, but sure is fun. Good luck !

I was in Lugano last month and while it's a great place to visit and shop, I don't recall seeing any outlets. There were a lot of sales going on but...outlets? They might be in the suburbs (I know of a chocolate factory outlet in Caslano, for example). Where did she hear about all these outlets and where exactly are they?

The outlet shopping that I know of in Lugano is a place called FoxTown. It is about 20 minutes south of LUgano in a town called Mendrisio. It has quite good shopping, outlets for lots of big name designer clothes and shoes as well as home wares and luggage etc. The Bally outlet is particularly good. However it is a mall, not a particularly fun place to be, so it is only worth going there if you want to shop. I don't know how to get there from Lugano without a car but I have seen lots of tour busses in the car park so you could probably find a day tour to the outlets.

For curiosity's sake, looked up Fox Town on Google, and it does indeed look like an &quot;outlets&quot; type of store...very interesting, I may pop in while we are sightseeing Lugano. Thanks for the info Lynn and pshamrock. This Fodor's is just chock full of great information. Judy