Northern Italy Fall 2022
 

My husband and I, both retired, are planning a trip to Northern Italy in September- and hope to do a "slow travel" kind of journey over 4-6 weeks (or more?). I was thinking of flying into Milan and beginning our trip on or near Lakes Garda or Como to stay for a week and from where we can take day trips. Venice, Bologna, and other smaller towns are on my list. Then Florence for at least a week (I haven't been there since I was a student in the 70s) and Lucca, where we'd like to stay for several days. The second part of our trip will be in Paris, so we could always go north on the Italian coast through Cinque Terre, Genoa and Liguria into southern France. I know I'll have to edit this itinerary somewhat, but I'd, most of all, appreciate suggestions for places to stay when we want to relax and explore the area and go on day trips. We're open to boutique hotels or vacation rentals, and hope to use the train as much as possible, but know that we will need to rent a car to get around. I've read some great trip reports and that has already helped me with my research. Thanks!

I think you need to get more focused on a realistic itinerary before asking for suggestions/ideas/lodging. Four to six weeks (or more?) feels like a long time, but you've mentioned 9-10 (or more?) places which, if traveling mostly by train, will mean lots of time spent in transit. It sounds like you want to spend at least 3 of the weeks at one of the lakes and in Florence and Lucca. Then there's Venice, Bologna, Paris... How much time is left for smaller towns, the Med coast, etc.?

If you rent a car, don't plan on picking it up in Italy and dropping it in France which would trigger an expensive one-way surcharge.

As you want to end in France, I would fly into Venice.... or land in Milan and plan to fly from Venice (or Florence/Pisa) to Paris. Or add more time to your trip.

Another thing to consider is where you will park a rental car if you have it while visiting places that have a ZLT (restricted driving zone). For example, me and my spouse (he just retired, I will work remotely) are just starting to plan a month-long trip to Italy. We're planning to fly into Milan (no car), then take the train to Venice. Pick up the car as we leave Venice to visit smaller cities that we haven't decided on (at least Modena, probably also Lucca and Siena), then end up in Rome for a week, where we will drop the car upon arrival. In the smaller cities, in our experience, it's easier to park on the edge of the city/town, walk into the city to our hotel etc., and walk out to the parking for any day trips we're taking. BTW, I love Bologna, good choice if you're thinking of staying there.

And I agree with Jean, 4-6 weeks is a long time, but you have a lot of places. Get an old-fashioned piece of paper with a calendar of your travel dates, then start penciling in possible destinations.

Adding to Lexma90... As you calendar the days, make note of the travel times (whatever mode) required to get from point to point. If driving and using maps.google.com for drive times, add 15-20% to all google estimates as they are based on speed limits and not reality. If taking trains, add some minutes at each end of a journey to account for getting to/from the stations. Unless you're staying within walking distance of the train stations, you'll want to use taxis which have to get through traffic.

In a trip of that length with that many destinations, I'd want to set aside a couple/few days with no plans to allow for unexpected disruptions/delays, bad weather, travel fatigue or, best case, hearing last minute about something you really want to do/see.

We love Lake Como and been there four times, once for two weeks. The only day trips we ever did were by ferry to other towns around the lake such as Lenno to visit Villa Balbienello. It is easier driving around Lake Garda on our way to and from the beautiful Dolomites.
We like slow travel but it still needs to make sense.
Combine Liguria,Lucca, the Piedmonte, Lakes Maggiore, Como and/ or Garda, Dolomites, Bologna. Add Venice. Fly in and out of Milan MXP. Or Lucca, Piemonte and do on.

Jean, Of course you are right. It's easy to be too ambitious when you have such a big bucket list. We'll be trimming the itinerary, for sure. I was just looking for an enthusiastic suggestion for a special place to stay for our 20th wedding anniversary in northern italy. I'm still working on a plan, but know we'll be starting in Milan and ending in Paris. Most likely in September. I've rented cars in Europe, and have learned the hard way about parking issues and drop off fees. We plan to rely on the train as much as possible!

Thank you Happy Trvlr! I love these ideas. It's what I had in mind.

Lexma90 - thanks for your suggestions about the car rental. I've heard good things about Bologna from other travelers and hope to include it on our itinerary. I know it's a train stop between Milan and Florence. How long did you stay there?

I'd plan for a couple of airbnb days where you do your washing, chill etc which allows you to reduce the amount of stuff you have to cart about.

Yes! Absolutely plan to do that. thanks Bilboburgler.

If you haven't been to Florence since the 70s, you'll find it very changed. The number of visitors has exploded, and September is one of the busiest months.

Bvlenci - yes, I have heard that. I'm thinking of October instead. Still warm-ish but a bit less crowded, I hope.

For many places, October isn't less crowded, esp. if the weather is good. Our preferred travel month is October, and every time we re-visit anywhere in Italy it's more and more crowded. I expect the crowds in the immediate post-Covid year or two to be bad... at least in the more popular destinations.

If your trip begins to drift into October, be aware that ferries on the lakes historically revert to off-season frequency sometime at/before mid-October. There is still service, but it isn't frequent enough to allow for ambitious daily excursions. Pick your lodging base carefully and study the ferry timetables.

FWIW, we spent our 25th (or was it 30th?) anniversary in late October at Lake Como. We'd been to the lake a couple of time before, so the episodes of rain and cool temps didn't impact our plans. If it had been our first visit, I would have been disappointed by the inability to see/do everything on my list.

We have visited Bologna several times, each time only for two or three nights. At some point we'll stay longer! There are a number of excellent smaller museums, as I recall there's a walk to a church (or something?) above the city, which we have not yet done. It's also a good location from which to take the train to places like Ferrera or Ravenna, which has incomparable mosaics. I've visited Ravenna several times because the mosaics (to me) are so amazing.

October is one of the most popular months to visit Florence, and all of Tuscany. I'm not sure why. Maybe because it's not so hot?

The owner of the hotel we frequent in Rome told us that after 9/11, October became her busiest month. Her theory is that a lot of people who had cancelled their September reservations re-booked a month later and found (at that time, 20+ years ago) that it was less crowded, fewer school groups, the weather was still good, etc. The word spread, lots of people changed their travel habits, and now October is more popular.

Yes, that makes sense. People who are not tied to their own or their children's school schedules find crowds, but a more adult crowd in autumn. Also, wine, olive oil, and truffles. And no heat waves. October is often rather rainy, though.

Thank you all for your recommendations. I am abbreviating our itinerary to make it more manageable and flexible for a 3 -4 week trip. As soon as it is more "baked", I am going to come back for more feedback. Your comments are so helpful.

Where we stayed on Lake Como:

https://www.ilperlo.com/en

almost the same picture as on their web site:

https://flic.kr/p/7phnd5

Beautiful! Thanks for the link.