Poplar

My daughter will be in Turin, Italy for a conference in late Sept. I am hoping to meet her & spend a week or so traveling. We are thinking of visiting the Cinque Terre for 3 days & then perhaps the south of France. We have visited, Rome & Florence. Any suggestions re an itinerary would be very much appreciated. I could meet her in Turin & we would take the train from there, departing home from another location, perhaps Paris?

annhig

What about a few days in Turin followed by Venice? or Nice?

On the train it's under 4 hours to Venice [with a change at Milan] and 5 ½ to Nice with a change at Venitmiglia.

RonZ

Train info on the maninseat61.com.

Turin to one of the CT villages will take about 3.5 hours, plus about an hour
on either end of a journey one adds when changing hotels. If you can fly out of Nice, that might be doable [about 5 hours on the train]. Another plan might be to stay in Italy, maybe flying out of Venice.

RonZ

Look up trains from Torino Porta Nuova to Monterosso [or the village of your choice] and then to Venezia S Lucia here:

http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en

ira

Hi Pop,

Why not Venice?

If you will have a car, Orta san Giulio is a lovely lakeside town.

Enjoy your visit.

nytraveler

Why not a few days at one of the lakes and then Venice?

Poplar

Thanks for these great suggestions. Continuing to fine tune our itinerary. We will not have a car & will depend on local transit mostly.

Poplar

Update... My flight is booked!!!
Arrive in Turin, depart from Milan
9 nights, not counting travel days(2)
Continue to look at CT, Lake district, possibly Venice.
No car, all travel by train. I hear mixed reviews on Venice, but cannot imagine it being anything other than worth visiting.

bilboburgler

Venice is unique.

If the tripper boats are in, walking can be a pain, just walk where they don't and walk 6am until 9am and 6pm until 9pm. These are the best times and the trippers need to go home and eat pie.

Do take out a vap pass and do some of the longer vap trips, even just for the food say at Chioggia.

Poplar

Update....will arrive in Turin on the 25th & take the train to Levanto, where we have booked an AirB&b for 3 nights, looking at taking the train to Venice, spending 3 nights there, maybe staying at a monastery, then to Milan for the last 2 nights. Would have liked to go to the Lake district but not sure if this is possible within this time frame. We fly out of Milan

Poplar

Is it possible to do a day trip to the lake district from the CT? Would really love to spend a day.

bilboburgler

8 lakes, which one?

To Como, would take 3 hrs plus to drive it, train 6 hours

start off with rome 2 rio and then dig deeper

Poplar

So, from what I am learning, it would be better to do a day trip to Lake Como from Milan?

PalenQ

No car, all travel by train.>

For lots of goodies on Italian trains, including neat discounts you can get on long-distance trains check www.seat61.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com.

You are going fairly short distances - if so you can take regional trains that are dirt cheap - do not even take seat reservations and as they are a flat fare just buy tickets as you go.

DebbieDoesDulles

If you cut Venice to two nights and a morning, you could hop a 90 minute train to Lake Garda (maybe the Aquila D'Oro Hotel, lovely)....from there you'd have a 75 min train ride into Milan next day.

PalenQ

If you decide to go to southern France instead from Turin there is a very scenic rail line to Nice -via Sospel-the French Riviera area can be a lovely place to base for a few days.

PalenQ

check www.voyages-sncf.com for discounted tickets Turin or Milan or Nice,etc to Paris. Booking early can yield huge savings over full fare.

Poplar

Well, things are getting into place.
Sept. 25 Arrive in Turin at noon. Stay with friends.
Sept. 27th, take train to CT for 3 nights, ABnB booked.
Sept. 30 train to Venice, 2 nights, hotel booked.
now here's the question.. I'd like to do a day tour to the Lake district. Should we stay an extra night in Venice, Oct. 2 & travel to the Lake district from there? Or should we travel to Milan on the 2nd & take the day trip from there?
Our flight from Milan is early on the 4th to Canada.
Also, am looking for a suggestion of an economical hotel to stay in Milan with a shuttle to the Malpensa airport. Thanks for your assistance!

ekscrunchy

If you are speaking of Lake Como, it is too far to go from Milan on a day trip.

I think you might consider skipping Venice and concentrating on Turin, CT, Camogli, at least 2 overnights in the Lake Como area, and back to Milan for flight home. You can take a taxi, albeit expensive, from the town of Como to Malpensa. You do not have enough time to fit in all those destinations in a sensible fashion.

Consider a day trip by train from Camogli to CT.

PalenQ

Como is a short train ride from Milan - making it an easy day trip - get a boat pass and see Bellagio and a few other hot spots. It's just over an hour to Como Lago di Nord train station from Milan - and boats await right opposite.

Lake Maggiore is also an easy day trip from Milan - train to Stresa and then visit the three Borromean Islands from there.