Would you go or would you stay?
 

Hi,
I am in the preliminary stages of planning ( as part of a longer trip) a week in northern Italy (Piedmont, Lombardy and the Veneto in early June. On my wish list are Lake Como/ Maggiore, (have visited this area before) Turin, Verona and Padua.

I would appreciate any thoughts on the following accommodation options . I am not, at this time, looking for suggestions of what to see as I have been researching and while I always have a long list of things to do and see, am trying to reach the point that if I see some great scenery and a couple of 'want to see' sites / churches/ museums etc then I have had a good visit so a day trip somewhere is fine with me.

I am flying in to Milan and possibly leaving for Ljubliana from Venice ( still looking at options)

What I am trying to decide is whether to base myself in Milan for the week ( apartment or hotel) and day trip out or move between two or three locations.

The pros and cons as I see it are:
With Milan as a base, i don't need to pack up and move so frequently and can move more freely without have to deal with luggage. But i would be training back and forth each day and not get to experience other towns 'after hours'

With moving bases, I would probably have 3-4 nights in the lakes , possibly 1 night Turin. 2 nights Verona or Padua and possibly 1 night Venice depending on transport to Ljubliana ( have been to Venice a number of times before and love it so even 1 night is a plus)

Thank you for any views you may have

Liz

All of the towns you mention wanting to visit have wonderful cocktail hours that are a big part of the life of the town. In June, the daylight hours will be long, so if you want, you can actually stay for the cocktail hour and still find a train back to Milan, but personally I would rather not be limited by a train schedule.

I feel differently about the lakes, and would probably day trip to them from Milan only on days when I knew the weather was good. Even though there are more crowds during the day, the primary attraction of the lakes is the scenery and once the sun goes town, the views vanish and the towns are not terribly interesting. Filled with tourists and no local life to speak of. So using Milan as a base for that part of the trip.

If you are landing in Milan, consider going directly to Torino your first day and, since you might be very jet-lagged the first day, spend 2 nights there instead of one, or plan to take a later evening train to Milan the 2d day,

Thanks Sandra for your comments and perspective. Sounds like staying in Verona or Padua iwoukd be a good option.. I will also look into going directly from Malpensa to Torino. My thoughts on staying in the lakes area was the possibility of watching sunrise/ sunset over the lakes.

You might not find it all that difficult to stay for sunset at the lakes and be sleeping in Milan, even though the sun sets fairly late in June. It might be especially nice to leave, say, Bellagio by ferry just as the sun is starting to set, heading for the town of Como, and watch the sunset from the ferry. Then you can get on a train in Como and go back to Milan in less than an hour. The train ride from Stresa to Milan is not long -- but I don't know how late ferries or trains are running, so maybe that doesn't work.

If you don't mind switching hotels around, no reason not to "road trip". But you also need to brace yourself for the possibility that you could get rain on a day you pre-booked into the lakes.

Something else you could consider is arriving at Malpensa and taking a bus directly to Stresa. See your sunset/sunrise, and the next morning go back to Malpensa to take the bus to Torino (if they still run it), or go to Torino by train.

If there is not a lot you want to see in Milan, you could go from Torino to Lago di Como with a mid-day stop in Milan to do your sightseeing without actually spending the night. You could put your luggage in the train station, and then come back in time to take a train to Varenna where you could arrive just before sunset on the lake. Next morning you get a sunrise, do some sightseeing, then plan to head to Verona after lunch. (Unfortunately, means transiting through Milan again -- but that also means if you wanted to put the Milan sightseeing after Lago di Como rather than before , you could do that, and then head to Verona. Hope that was somewhat clear...)

Thanks Sandra for more options to play with.

I have stopped in Milan and for this sort of visit I would not. You need a Padua/Soave/Verona base and then a Turin base.

Re Verona. If you will be there BEFORE 24 June that is probably better. The opera festival kicks off about that date and the city becomes more crowded and sometimes hotel accommodations can be harder to secure.

Personally I might stay IN Verona as a preface to Venice rather than going back and forth from Milan.

Thanks Bilboburgler and Dukey. I am considering travelling early June, ahead of school holidays and the Opera festival. Will look into Turin and Verona as possible bases. Perhaps visiting Lake Gardia would then be an option.

I think this choice is a very personal one -- no right or wrong answers, just answers that do or don't fit your particular preferences.

Unlike many Fodorites, I'm not fond of using bases. Years of solo international travel have taught me that I personally will rarely, if ever, spend more time moving on than staying put if the travel time to my next destination is more than an hour and is in the general direction of my subsequent journey. Moving on is, quite literally, a time-saver for me -- and oh, how I loathe wasting time when on a trip! Too, I think I remember places better if I spend the night than if I visit as a day trip, at least in part because I get to see the new place in differing lights, and with and without day-trippers, and I have memories of a different hotel, so I have a fuller array of memories that are separate from my memories of the place from which I might have visited it.

JMO!

One or even two nights seems a very short amount of time for Turin. I found plenty to do there.

The ferry ride down the lake between Como and, say, Varenna is very scenic - IF the weather cooperates - but I think it would be a pity not to sleep lakeside.

Thanks Kja and thursdaysd for your input. It looks like you are all in agreement that I would have a better experience if I stayed in some of the towns I wanted to visit rather that daytrip from Milan.
Next step is to do some more research to get right balance between locations
Thanks everyone