julies

We just started talking about doing an Italian trip beginning around Oct. 1. Our trip would be close to three weeks and we'd end up with some cycling time in southern Italy in Puglia. We'd like to start out in a northerly locale where we could have a good base for some interesting and lovely, not too strenuous, walking/hiking for perhaps four to six hours per day before coming back to collapse and relax in a cute and charming area. Our first preference would be a place we could reach by train, but we can certainly also rent a car. We are older and retired so definitely not up to the physical challenges we could have once tackled.

Is this too late in the season for walking in mountainous areas?

Does anyone have any suggestions to get me started on investigating? Thanks.

fourfortravel

We use https://www.bergwelten.com quite a bit when planning our hiking/wandering activities.

Most recently (as in the previous six months) we have spent two long weekends in Seefeld in Tirol, one in between Christmas and New Years; the other last month. I don't know if this area has the kind of hiking/wandering you seek, so I offer it with that caveat; we typically hike the "light" (if our Senior DDog is with us) or "medium" (if DDog is not with us) trails. Usually, but not always, anywhere from 8-12km is what we like to do in a single outing, depending on the offers (scenery, hiking challenge, etc.)

I hope this is helpful.

PalenQ

I am a huge fan of the Jungfrau Region around Interlaken, Switzerland - to me the best and easiest place to access the awesome high Alps - with a myriad of foot paths for all kinds of degrees of experiences and difficulty all over the place.

thrilling mountain trains and aerial gondolas going off in all directions makes accessing them a snap.

Ensconce yourself in a small mountain town like Wengen or a larger one like Grindelwald and be eyeball to eyeball with glacier-girdled high peaks of the Jungfrau Massif.

Are you driving - cars and the Jungfrau area are not a good mix as they cannot go beyond two base cities - and the public transit system is so so good. Land in Zurich- take train to Interlaken and train up to dem hills. Take train to Italy in about 3 hours. For lots on trains and this fabulous area: www.sbb.ch; www.swisstravelsystem.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com.

julies

This is exactly the type of info I am looking for. I will further delve into it, and I will have to rely on Google Translate a lot with Bergwelten.

Frankly, we'd prefer to take trains if possible. But, we are also willing to rent a car.

Do either of you know if Oct. 1 is too late in the season to do something of this sort? I am uncertain as to when the snows start.

PalenQ

No October 1st should be OK but in the Alps -especially north side the weather can always be lousy -rain sets in even in summer for days on occasion.

And northern Italy can be rather wet at this time too.

yestravel

We went to the Upper Engadine in late Sept/early October a couple years ago. We stayed in Pontresina and had lots of nice not too strenous hikes. What is great I believe for many trail is that you ride up, s that long climb is elminated. We flew into Zurich and took trains the entire trip into Italy. It was beautiful and loved it. Been wanting to get back to Switzerland.

No expert on the weather, but when we researched both on here and other places we got scared off of the Jungfrau area due to weather concerns that time of the year. My preference had been to go to Wengen perhaps.

massimop

In the first week of October the nicest hiking venues in northern Italy are likely to be in the Italian Riviera. You can aim for areas around the lakes, but the weather in closing in on you. However, if you are flying into Milan, you really don't need to book hotels in hiking destinations in advance. You can wait to look at the weather forecasts until the week before you leave (even a few days before you leave) , and then book either the lakes or the val d'Aosta or the Italian Riviara, depending on where the sun will be shining. All these destinations are reachable by train.

If that's too suspenseful for you, and it isn't Alpine scenery you need but the activity of hiking you enjoy, then the Amalfi Coast has plenty of very scenic hiking and typically a longer "summer". You can reach easily by public transportation & would obviously find it easy to head onward to Puglia from there.

PalenQ

One mid-September -during the famous Jungfrau Marathon (talk about strenuous hikes -ended I think at Kleine Scheidegg thousands of feet up) in Murren there was ice on the sidewalks in town.

I was going to take the famous 3-Pass postal bus ride but got to station in Meiringen to find that the buses were cancelled because the Susten Pass was blocked by snow. May have been exceptional but could be cool in October for sure. But there are lower level hikes around too.

Engadine a ring a ding (as one local weather caster in Detroit once always pronounced the Michigan town of the same name) I think is a better weather choice the later in autumn you go.

massimop

Here's how you can track Italian weather forecasts to see where the sun or the rain will be happening in the boot. You can also get the 15-day forecast in specific towns using the search feature, although anything more than 5 or 6 days is very iffy -- the shorter the better. There is plenty of empty hotel space in hiking destinations in Oct.

https://www.ilmeteo.it/

https://www.ilmeteo.it/meteo/Bellagio

https://www.ilmeteo.it/portale/meteo-lungo-termine

julies

More great advice and more research for us. We well know that mountainous areas typically have bad weather starting much earlier than lower elevations, so that is why I am concerned about weather. PalenQ's experience in Murren is exactly what we hope to avoid.

Lucky for us, we are the type of people who are fine with "winging it"; that's one of the reasons we are so late in just starting to think about this trip.

Several years ago we took a three week trip to Italy when it was ranked at the coldest May in Italy in 200 years, and there was rain. We ended up deciding to look at the weather forecasts to see where we could go where it wouldn't be raining; that's how we endued up visiting the Lakes area.

One more thing: what are your thoughts on the Cinque Terre in Oct. for a couple days of walking? It is an idea we have been tossing around as a possible stop between more northerly and southerly Italy. I know that there are very mixed thoughts on visiting the Cinque Terre.

massimop

The first week of October in le Cinque Terre is generally dry and beautiful After than, it is possible to get deluges -- or it might stay dry into November. It's totally upredictable.

The negative reports on le Cinque Terre have a lot to do with crowds and in particular cruise ship day trippers (or those coming on buses from Florence). Unfortunately, cruise ships along the Med are still circulating into October, and October is a busy season for Florence.

However, the daytrippers rarely hike, so if you are a committed hikers, you will already ybe up in the high hills before the day-trippers arrive and overrun the villages. You just want to make sure to have a reservation if you plan to eat lunch in one fo the more popular restaurants.

Still, the character of the le Cinque Terre villages now reflects the fact that foreign tourism is their major income producer. You can avoid the worst of that ambience but still get in a lot of good hiking by staying in the area of Rapallo (and it is easier to get to from Milan) or just lodging a bit up the coast to a town like Bonassola, where you can access a lot of the le Cinque Terre hiking trails very easily.

Hiking in the Rapallo area

http://www.portofinotrek.com/trek/gb...ory/2-villages

This website doesn't mention coastal towns like Levanto, Bonassola and Moneglia near le Cinque Terre that are worth checking out, but it gives general pointers about hiking in and around the area beyond the most touristed spots

http://www.apathtolunch.com/p/citiestowns.html

julies

massimop--We've heard so much about the Cinque Terre that we've always wanted to visit. I really appreciate you steering me towards Rapallo.

yestravel

Great info as we have avoided Cinque Terre for the reasons stated.

massimop

Forgot to add that one other hiking possibility that can be reached by public transportation from Malpensa is Lugano, since there is a direct bus from the airport that takes one hour to get to Lugano. So if it's sunny there, that's an option unless you'd like something different than your last lake excursion.

It doesn't appear to be difficult to get from Malpensa to the town of Aosta using trains, but you might want to check what bus options are available too (but be aware schedules might change on Oct 1). It's about a 3 hour bus ride from Milan center to Aosta town. If the sun is shining there, Aosta is a terrific town with hikes right plus the local train line & buses offer pretty quick access to some wonderful elevated areas or parks for hiking & rambling (Pre St Didier, Ollomont/Gignot, Cogne...). However, if you's rather rent a car, there's a rental office in Aosta, or it's a 2-hour drive from Malpensa.

MmePerdu

This is an area I was thinking about at one point, joining a group. I didn't but it may be someplace to investigate:
https://www.hfholidays.co.uk/holiday...uirico-dorcia/

Here's their list of Italian walking destinations which may also give you some ideas:
https://www.hfholidays.co.uk/destinations/europe/italy/

Not suggesting buying the group experience, just for the locations.

julies

MmePerdu--

As we have discussed in the past, our tastes in travel are remarkably similar.

Thanks for the links because I often use them for reference to places to look into rather than for group tours.


massimop--You are definitely correct that the cruise ships will still be arriving pretty much non-stop in October.

For future reference and anyone interested, I found this schedule for cruise ship stops in La Spezia. http://crew-center.com/la-spezia-ita...-schedule-2017 And, Livornio http://crew-center.com/livorno-italy...-schedule-2017


I assume that I should be most worried about cruise ships to LaSpezia because it is closer. Would you guess I am right?

Thanks again.