Northern Italy Itinerary By Train (Venice, Florence, the Lakes & More)

This northern Italy itinerary makes for a traditional European journey route, combining epic mountain surroundings, shimmering lakes, and cities steeped in historical past,

Having a wonderful rail community, this a part of Italy can also be completely explored by practice. Read on for my actual journey route and sensible ideas for travelling round Italy by rail.

Why journey in Italy by practice?

Italy has a cushty and environment friendly practice community with many high-speed practice connections between the most important cities.

Even many smaller cities, reminiscent of these across the Lakes, are simply reached utilizing native trains. You may even go on some scenic practice rides by means of the mountains.

Northern Italy is comparatively costly, so not having to hire a automotive for a street journey meant that we may spend extra of our funds on lodging and points of interest.

If you’re American, it’s helpful to know that public transportation in Italy (and Europe typically) is kind of completely different from the USA. Public transport receives a whole lot of funding in Europe and is usually quick, handy, and may even be most well-liked over driving.

You additionally take pleasure in arriving proper within the middle of the town, near the vacationer areas and lodging.

How to e book trains in Italy

Buying practice tickets could be a bit complicated in Italy. Multiple firms function on the identical community, every with its personal ticket cubicles and schedules. The reserving websites and tickets are often in Italian and never in English.

Fortunately, there are a number of European ticket reserving websites that work very properly in Italy: Omio, Trainline, and RailEurope. I’ve used all three however I now solely use Trainline, primarily due to their nice app, which is able to present you reside departure occasions and different helpful information.

Trainline sells the very same tickets and on the similar costs because the Trenitalia or Italo rail firms. It simply makes it simpler to pay by bank card or PayPal and to purchase tickets with just some faucets.

For most routes, it offers you a PDF file with a QR code that may be scanned by the conductor or on the station entry gates.

Always double-check when you chosen the right station. Venice has two important stations: one for the historic space and one for the brand new a part of city on land. Milan additionally has a number of main stations (e.g. Milano Porta Garibaldi and Milano Centrale).

Where to start out your journey

If you’re taking a practice into Italy

There are some ways to reach in Italy by practice. Milan is the plain place to begin when you’re coming from different nations by rail.

Paris to Milan is a direct connection taking ±7 hours. It runs through Turin.

Frankfurt to Milan has a high-speed direct connection taking ±8 hours, which passes by Basel and different locations in Switzerland. This practice additionally stops at Lake Como so you would probably get off and begin your northern Italy journey there.

It’s additionally attainable to get to Italy by practice straight from Switzerland or Slovenia.

If you’re flying to Italy

Many folks most likely begin their journey in Rome as that is the place many worldwide flights arrive. In this case, your itinerary would possibly appear like this:

Rome → Florence → Venice → Milan → the Lakes.

We opted to start out our journey in Venice as a result of there was an affordable and handy flight there from our residence metropolis (and we’d been to Rome earlier than). Our northern Italy itinerary grew to become:

Venice → Florence → Milan → Lake Como → Lake Maggiore.

Milan could be a nice place to begin too. Its airports are very properly linked with Milan Bergamo being a significant hub for Ryanair and different funds carriers. Keep in thoughts that Milan Bergamo is about an hour exterior of Milan. Bergamo is linked by rail to Milan in addition to to Lake Como.

Northern Italy itinerary

You can do that journey in many various methods, however I’ll simply describe it within the order we selected to do it.

We began with busy Venice after which slowly went down the dimensions of depth till reaching some very relaxed locations by the lakes on the finish. I believed this was fairly a pleasant technique to construction the journey, which allow us to get the extra intense sightseeing out of the best way first.

Venice

Yep… Venice is likely one of the most touristy locations in Europe. It is understood to get overcrowded through the summer time excessive season, although on the finish of September, I discovered it very fulfilling to discover.

To recognize this metropolis, you’ll need to simply accept that just about every little thing in Venice revolves round tourism. Once you do, it’s an incredible place to go to.

It can nonetheless get a bit too crowded alongside the primary thoroughfares even within the shoulder season, although that is offset by the entire lack of motorized visitors, creating a way of calm that you’d by no means expertise in virtually another metropolis.

The city format, structure, and historical past of Venice are totally fascinating. The Doge’s Palace, St. Mark’s Museum, and Museo Correr are all extremely price it and have been my favorite elements of visiting Venice.

Florence

We devoted 4 nights to Florence, which appeared like quite a bit on the time we deliberate our itinerary. To be trustworthy, by the 4th day I didn’t really feel like I used to be completed with Florence in any respect. If you’re into museums and cultural sights then Florence is really a cornucopia. I’d have been very pleased staying there for an entire week!

Some issues are price planning forward a bit. For instance, if you would like the entire ticket for the cathedral that features getting on prime of the enduring dome, I like to recommend getting these upfront as these slots are restricted and will promote out even exterior of peak season.

The phenomenal Uffizi Gallery requires a minimum of half a day to see correctly. Around midday I discovered it to be fairly disturbing and overcrowded, but it surely will get infinitely extra fulfilling within the later hours. I strongly counsel visiting the Uffizi within the morning or taking a giant lunch break to keep away from the mid-day rush.

Be certain to plan out your Cathedral and Uffizi go to and ensure to maintain a while free for the Palazzo Vecchio (one other must-see sight), however different elements of visiting Florence you may improvise a bit extra. It’s an exquisite metropolis to walk round and uncover. I might be going again for certain.

Milan

We had plans to remain in Milan for an evening or two, however actually we skipped straight forward to Lake Como. This was on account of us travelling with a 9-month previous child and, frankly, we have been completely shattered from all the town sightseeing and have been craving some quiet time by a lake.

Opinions appear divided on Milan. Some say it’s very fashionable and due to this fact not as attention-grabbing. I truly discovered a whole lot of locations and issues I needed to see in Milan. My associate has been to Milan earlier than and loves it. On a future journey in northern Italy, I’ll positively take a more in-depth take a look at Milan.

But if there’s just one place you examine in Milan, ensure it’s the central practice station. We had a little bit of a 4 hour ‘layover’ there between trains and oh my God, it’s definitely essentially the most spectacular practice station I’ve ever seen.

Not figuring out in any respect what to anticipate, I used to be 100% boggled by the massive excessive ceilings, awe-inspiring galleries, and sumptuous entrance corridor. Opened in 1864, it was in-built a mixture of kinds together with artwork nouveau and artwork deco. Not a foul place in any respect to have to attend for a delayed practice.

Lake Como

Lake Como is likely one of the hottest locations in northern Italy. It’s partially made well-known by the truth that Hollywood stars like George Clooney have purchased properties right here.

Certain inns and mansions within the central components of the lake, reminiscent of within the cities of Varenna and Menaggio, are positively very fancy.

However, you don’t should be a George Clooney to get pleasure from Lake Como. There are loads of cafes and eating places the place the costs are at regular ranges for this a part of Italy.

Varenna is the place you’ll most likely need to keep if you wish to be proper beside the lake and in a extremely romantic location.

The unusually tall and slim Hotel Olivedo by the docks jogged my memory of Wes Anderson movies and could be my favored place to remain for some old-school class.

To save a bit on lodging prices we opted to remain within the city of Lecco, positioned on the finish of the southeastern tendril of Lake Como.

It feels quite a bit like a standard northern Italian city, so it’s not so touristy, although it has some good strolling streets and views of spectacular fjord-like mountains.

From Lecco practice station it’s solely 20 minutes to Varenna, which is able to put you proper on the coronary heart of Lake Como. There are additionally ferries however they take quite a bit longer (a minimum of an hour).

The neatest thing to do on Lake Como is to go town-hopping between Varenna, Menaggio, and Bellagio. Ferries are consistently shifting backwards and forwards between these three triangularly positioned cities on the middle of the lake. One of the ferries even had an previous steam engine with all of the pistons absolutely uncovered inside, which was very cool to see.

It’s attainable to achieve all of the cities on the east facet of the lake by regional practice and even into the valleys north of the lake to Sondrio or Chiavenna. The west sides of the lake might be reached solely by automotive or by ferry.

The views at Lake Como are incredible and simply sipping prosecco by the lakeside or having fun with some insanely good gelato is all of the leisure you want right here.

Lake Maggiore

For our closing 4 nights, we opted to remain at Lake Maggiore. It’s not fairly as photogenic as Lake Como because the mountains round it aren’t as tall.

Having stated that, I a lot loved the extra laidback environment at Lake Maggiore and the trio of small islands inside it that you would be able to go to.

The important railway monitor runs alongside the west facet of the lake. We took a practice from Lake Como to Milan and altered there to a practice to Stresa, a small city that also feels a bit like a Nineteenth-century lake resort, with a number of stately “Grand Hotels” by the docks and numerous smaller inns and B&Bs on the fringes.

Stresa is an ideal base as from right here you may simply soar on a brief ferry to Isola Superiore, Isola Bella, or Isola Madre.

The latter is particularly price visiting as this small island options beautiful botanical gardens, a mansion was a museum, and has numerous unique birds milling about.

There can also be a cliffside convent throughout the water and a big botanical park south of Stresa, making this a fruitful space to be for sightseeing and walks.

Although Stresa feels a bit previous its prime, it’s the web site of some essential historical past. It’s on the Palazzo Borromeo on Isola Bella that the Stresa Front Treaty was signed in 1935, which was designed to comprise Hitler earlier than the beginning of WW2 (and which clearly failed). Strangely there wasn’t a lot to study this in Stresa itself, however a museum in Locarno provided some attention-grabbing historic context.

Train to Locarno, Switzerland

From Stresa, or from any station on the western facet of Lake Maggiore, you may catch a practice to Domodossola, the place you may change to the single-track mountain practice to Locarno in Switzerland. It’s a enjoyable day journey so as to add to your Italy itinerary.

Since I’m an absolute youngster, I used to be fairly amused by the identify of this railway service: the Ferrovie Autolinee Regionali Ticinesi or, sure… the FART.

First, the FART practice rips by means of a valley dotted with Alpine villages. After the primary hour or so, the landscapes actually turn into magnificent, with pine-covered canyons and tall imposing mountains. Finally, the practice toots into Locarno station, a Swiss metropolis by the lakeside. You can learn extra about this journey right here.

We didn’t suppose Locarno had a lot to supply as a journey vacation spot, with few sights or museums of any curiosity. However, it does make for a pleasant lunch cease in Switzerland earlier than turning again to Italy.

In summer time, you should purchase a mixed FART + ferry ticket marketed because the Lago Maggiore Express. This helps you to journey to Locarno by practice, then return to Stresa by boat. This is certainly the popular possibility, although since we have been in Stresa simply out of peak season, the boat was already unavailable. Instead of taking the ferry, we got here again the identical method by practice.

As far as I’m conscious, you may’t purchase tickets for the Lago Maggiore Express or for the FART on-line. We purchased our tickets the old fashioned method: in individual at a journey agent simply throughout from the ferry docks in Stresa.