As part of our European trip in May my husband and I are planning to fly to Milan from Vienna. We would prefer to make someplace other than, and smaller than, Milan our home base for several days and sightsee from there. We will be relying on public transportation. I have read some about Varenna and Bellagio. What are your recommendations?

my personal recommendation is Verona and do sightseeing from there.

Where do you want to go sightseeing?? How many days do you have? How far/long do you want to travel to other places each day... an hour? 90 minutes? Where will you go after these days near Milan?

Varenna and Bellagio are both good for exploring Lake Como, and May would be a lovely time of year on the lake. If you don't want to stay in Milan, perhaps fly into Bergamo which is closer by train to Varenna. You could even stay in Bergamo if your sightseeing plans were only partially about Lake Como.

If you were thinking of spending time in the Piemonte area, Torino or Alessandria would provide good access.

I like Verona, and there are many sightseeing options from there. However, Malpensa to Verona by train will take about 3 hours. You'd be better off flying into Venice than Malpensa.

Thank you. I think we will have 4 days to spend in Italy. We will stay in one spot and venture out from there. We are thinking of making Varenna our home base. When we leave Italy we will be flying to Luxembourg. Thank you for suggesting the Bergamo airport. It looks like there are direct flights from Vienna and to Luxembourg.

If it's only 4 days (not impacted by arrival and departure, I hope), I would probably stay in Varenna or Bellagio and focus on Lake Como.