I am having a difficult time deciding where to spend four days in Italy. I have heard so much about the Lake District. Does anyone have any comments about it. How far would that be to visit Venice also? Thanks for any help.

We will be in that area in May and are staying in Bellagio on Lake Como. Awesome little town. Check out www.tripadvisor.com for hotel reocommendations.

Lake Como is my favorite! They are all wonderful...check out little Lake Orta. If you don't want to pay Bellagio hotel prices...stay somewhere else on Como and simply hop on one of the lake ferries and enjoy Bellagio anyway.

Ob - Lake Garda would be the most practical if you want to do a day-trip to Venice.

Steve

Lake Maggiore has the Borromean Islands which are interesting and fascinating to visit. You spend the day travelling around the lake by boat and each of the islands has its own personality.

Where are you coming from? Where else do you have to be in Italy? Will you have a car?

Most people go to the lakes to relax, but if you just want to enjoy beautiful vistas, you should spend a night or two on Lago di Como, the most famous and scenice of the lakes.

If any portion of your journey involves flying in and out of Milan, you can easily include a trip to Lago Maggiore. In fact, you can spend the night in Lago Maggiore before leaving on a morning flight from Malpense. (You can apparently do the same from Lago d'Orta, although I haven't done it personally.)

It is true that Lago di Garda is the most convenient to Venice, but that is only if you stay in the southern portion of Lago di Garda, which is the least scenic part of it. If you want to see the most scenic parts, you need to go by boat or car.

I've never been to Lago d'Orta (which is a favorite destination for weddings these days, I hear) nor have I been to Lago d'Iseo.

Each of the lakes seems to attract a different nationality of toursits: Lago di Como attracts Americans, Lago Maggiore the British, and Lago di Garda, Germans. That's a broad generalization because you'll find all sorts of Europeans everywhere on the lakes, including Italians.

What about taking a day trip to Lake Como from Milan instead of staying at hotel? Is it worth it? We're planning to fly out of Milan so I wanted to somehow include Como in our itinenary and I'm torn between spending extra day in Milan or at the lake.
P.S. Sorry for hijacking the thread.

How early is your flight? Will you have a car? What day of the week are we talking about in what month?

There are busses that go directly to Malpensa from Menaggio on Lagi di Como. You need to check the schedules. If you can't find them on the web, one way to find out is to ask a hotel as part of the inquiry of room avaialibility.

If you don't have a morning flight, you can stay in Como, take a train to Milan and then the bus to Malpensa.

Needless to say, you can also hire a car to take you to Malpensa. It's expensive -- but then so is a Milan hotel room.

I can't help you with your dilemma about choosing between Milan and the lakes. I really like Milan, especially as a place to stay before going home after an Italian journey. How many days are planning to spend in Milan apart from this last day?

Well, we haven't bought the tickets yet, it's still in the planning stage, so I don't know the departure times. Hopefully it will be late Saturday flight back to DC via Paris. According to our initial plan we spend 6 days in Rome/Florence/Venice and then probably Thursday night we take train from Venice to Milan area. I was thinking about booking hotel in Milan for 2 nights and then spend 1 day exploring Milan and one day trip on rental car for lake como. How far is it to drive up there, couple hours? Thanks so much for your comments.