Northern Italy/Switzerland mid May??
 

I booked a great fare from JFK to Milan in mid May ($799 for 2).We will have 14 days on the ground, not counting arrival/departure days.

We are interested in: outdoors; walks or easy to moderate hikes, food and just soaking in the beauty. We are ok with train or driving.

First - input on weather this time of year?? While I know the unpredictable nature of weather, just wondering if we might have some dry weather this time of year? Warm would be nice, but at altitude, know that is less likely.

Fodors has what looks like a nice itinerary - http://www.fodors.com/world/europe/i...-mountains-44/

If we do something like that, we'd have to fly from Zurich to MXP, air fare is about $100. Thinking if we drove, there might be a big drop off fee.

Any input into how we could best use the 14 days and perhaps not have to fly from Zurich would be appreciated.

We would be willing to do less stays to lengthen number of night per place or we can keep it to short stays in each spot. I know how much time you lose transferring, but perhaps 2 or 3 night per stop in this kind of itinerary is better.

This really just fell into my lap today, wasn't on the radar and have 24 hours to keep it tickets or not.

Thanks in advance~~

OK, now that I have calmed down :o) I looked closer at the Fodor's itinerary. It is pretty poorly set up, hard to figure out the logistics they had in mind, but I am not going to fly to and from Zurich.

SO - will now ask for help on spending 4 nights per location, less locations and an logical loop if we can. Switzerland included would be nice, but if it won't work, that's ok.

We have been to Florence and Rome, so not looking for that, nor Venice. A night or 2 in Milan is ok.

Again, thanks~

Great air fare! Have you done the area between Milan and Venice including Verona, Vicenzo,Bassanondel Grappa and Padua? Don't shortchange Milan. I think it is a great underrated by many city. We were at Lake Como around the same time and had lovely weather. If you want to explore an undiscovered and interestiNg area of Italy check out Fruili Venezia Giulia. From there you could go into the Dolmites which are beautiful. we were therein the May timeframe and while it was chilly generally had good weather. We did go high into the mountains one day and ran into a huge snowstorm,

You can get a train from Milan into Switzerland. You go to Tirano and then switch to the Bernina Express route for a gorgeous train ride into Switzerland. Pick a place to stop along the way and do some nice hikes. We stayed in Pontresina and did some great hikes.

Milano Malpensa airport is close to the Swiss border. There are direct buses from MXP to Lugano and direct trains from MXP to Bellinzona, both in Switzerland.
You may also take a local bus or a local train from MXP to Gallarate railway station and continue by train to Domodossola - Brig (Aletsch glacier) - Visp (Zermatt Matterhorn) - Spiez (Interlaken Jungfrau) - Bern - Basel/Zurich.

Fodor recommends you to do more or less 3times the same, as Lakes Maggiore, Lugano and Como are somewhat similar. If you want to explore this area, you better stay at Lugano, from where it's extremely easy to do day trips to both, Lake Maggiore and Lake Como, as well as to the Alps and Lake Lucerne.

Zurich is by far not among the gems of Switzerland; for scenic medieval Swiss towns, go to places like Bern, Fribourg or Murten; for towns with medieval castles, check Bellinzona, Montreux/Chillon, Schaffhausen; for gothic cathedrals, have a look at Bern, Fribourg, Basel...
You may have a look at
http://www.myswitzerland.com/en/home.html
http://www.swisstravelsystem.ch/en/
http://fahrplan.sbb.ch/bin/query.exe/en

OK, so I have come up with the following:
Day 1 -stay overnight in Milan.
Day 2-5 - head to Cannobio - Lake Maggiore *
Day 5-8 Lugano **
Day 8-12 Varenna *** IS 5 nights here too many?
Day 12- 15 Milan. No hotel yet.

Do you think the distribution of days seems right?
Thanks!

Hotels-
* http://www.pironihotel.it/en 3 nights
** http://www.pestalozzi-lugano.ch/en/hotel-lugano/ 3 nights
***http://www.pestalozzi-lugano.ch/en/hotel-lugano/ 4 or 5 nights

Thinking about Hotel Berna in Milan.

http://www.hotelberna.com/

Input on this welcomed.

The Berna is a nice hotel.

I think if it were me -- and you are not me, I realize! -- I would take advantage of that direct bus to Lugano from Malpensa and begin there. Then go to Varenna -- but then I would rent a car for a few days and have an adventure. I'm not sure where I would go with the car, since May is still spring and you need to be mindful of avoiding some mountainous areas -- but if you are not averse to driving, you might really enjoy getting off the beaten track. Ultimately you could drop off the car at Malpensa and take the train into Milan for the finale.

Just a thought -- but if you like your present plan for a very outdoorsy, car free, stress free vacation, then stick with it.

Sorry -- my post wasn't clear.

I would take public transportation to Lugano and from Lugano to Varenna, and enjoy Varenna without a car. But then I would take public transportation to where I could rent a car (town of Como or perhaps Bergamo? Would need to find out where) and then go toddling.

But like I said, having a car means changing the nature of the vacation, which there is no particular reason to do if you are mainly interested in just kicking back where it is beautiful.

We stayed in Hotel Berna in October. We wanted to be close to the train station and it definitely fit the bill for that. Other than the metro trip to the Triennale di Milano we walked everywhere. To give you an idea of distance it took us maybe 25-30 minutes to get to the Duomo. In the immediate neighborhood there were lots of restaurant where we ate one evening.

Hotel staff were very accommodating. The room was on the small side as many hotels in Italy tend to be. But it was a comfortable room with plenty of closet space. As I recall there was a desk under the window and a spare bed or sofa type deal in it. Breakfast was a huge buffet and it was ok. All and all it was a satisfactory hotel for our stay in Milan.

I just realized I had the wrong hotel for Varenna -
http://www.olivedo.it/

Also, I booked the first night at The Hermitage Hotel.

http://warwickhotels.com/hotel-hermitage/

Thanks for all your feedback; it helps alot.

We are looking to do "the country thing" as our primary focus on thi trip, except for the days at the end in Milan. We did cities last year in Italy. I owe my hubby some country living!

Still wondering about 4 or 5 days being too much in Varenna. I know the ferries will take us around to different towns, so thinking that will work.