Need Help Planning 2 nights around Lake Como
 

My husband, myself, and two dear friends (female, single and don't share a bed) are headed to Italy in late September. Our rough schedule is Lucerne for 2 days, Lake Como area for 2 days, Florence (or Tuscany) for 3 nights, and finishing around Modena/Milan (so hubby can do the all day car museum/factory tour in Modena) for 2 nights. We are willing to train and/or rent a car.

I would like to stay at mid priced hotels or B&Bs and would definitely consider a villa or apartment. By mid-priced, I would like to keep it right around $200/night. Is this reasonable?

I would also like any suggestions about what to do/see. I've been reading the boards which have been helpful but would appreciate any additional input

Hi M5 - You can easily spend a leisurely couple of days around Lake Como.

Highlights are Bellagio, Varenna and Menaggio - all well-connected by ferry. It would be advisable to base in one of those IMO.

If you want to go further afield you could day-trip to Lugano - or take the scenic Bernina express train ride over to San Moritz from Tirano.

Hope this helps ...

Steve

Varenna is a great place to base yourself. It's less expensive than Bellagio and you could still take a boat there and see it. I can't think of the name of the place we stayed, but it, literally, hung over the lake. It was great and not terribly expense. It was something we found through Rick Steve's book.

Just looked it up. It was Hotel du Lac. Small, boutique with a balcony and view that is to die for!!!

I am confused by your last entry, Modena/Milan. It's about 175 km between the two of them, and if you have to get yourself to MXP Malpensa airport on public transport it will take at least 3 3/4 hours from Modena.

If you want to rent a car, you'd probably do best to train to Como, and rent the car there, as a car rented in Switzerland would have a huge drop off fee in Italy, and the train would probably be faster than driving.

You could easily do your trip by train. You would certainly not want a car in Florence. If you are doing your trip by train, then I would consider staying in the town of Como itself as the transport time to/from a smaller place like Menaggio or Varenna would really eat into your short time.

For your $200/night, do you want 1 room for 4 for $200 or 2 doubles at $200 each? It makes a big difference.

I did something similar two years ago. Lucerne, Varenna, Siena, Southern Tuscany, and Umbria. You can read my trip report and see photos at
http://www.travelswithdiane.homestea...2006Page1.html
We did a combination of train, plane and automobile. Landing in Zurich, we trained to Lucerne, flew to Milan (we found cheap tickets) and trained to Varenna, then trained to Siena where we rented a car. It was a lot of moving around. If I had it to do over again and didn't need to fly into Zurich, I would have dropped Lucerne. I chose Zurich as I was able to use my frequent flyer points and it was as close to the lakes as I could get using them.

We want to stay in Modena or very close as my husband's "car" tour begins at 8:30. After reading a lot of the posts, I'm beginning to think that we shouldn't bother going into Milan at all except to catch a plane. Is exploring the Chianti region by car out of Modena a good idea? If so, any suggestions on wineries would be most welcome.

I just love this board - You guys ROCK!!