Lake region of Italy in November

I'm planning an early November trip to Italy, beginning with a 2 night
stay in Milan. I was hoping to make a day trip to Maggiore or Como.
Would it be worth it, weather-wise? Will certain attractions like in
the Borromean islands on Lago Maggiore have visiting hours then? If a
day trip to the lakes isn't a good idea in November, can you suggest
another alternative out of Milan for a day?
I have in mind at this point, 2 nights in Milan, 2 in Venice, 3 in
Florence and 4 in Rome for me--who has been to all but Milan and the
surrounding areas--and my husband who's never been to Italy at all.
Bearing that in mind, do you think I've alloted our time in the
various cities well--with possibly a side trip to Siena while staying
in Florence --or wherever else you suggest? I'm flexible. THANKS!

"sharala" wrote in message
om...
I'm planning an early November trip to Italy, beginning with a 2 night
stay in Milan. I was hoping to make a day trip to Maggiore or Como.
Would it be worth it, weather-wise?

Not sure if it reaches up into the lake region, but you can
virtually guarentee that the plains of Lombardy will be fog-bound
for parts of November.

Will certain attractions like in
the Borromean islands on Lago Maggiore have visiting hours then?

My much out of date book (1989) says that they open until the
third week of October

Sorry that I can't be more positive, November is a great time
for south Italy, for the northern part it's much less certain.

tim

If a
day trip to the lakes isn't a good idea in November, can you suggest
another alternative out of Milan for a day?
I have in mind at this point, 2 nights in Milan, 2 in Venice, 3 in
Florence and 4 in Rome for me--who has been to all but Milan and the
surrounding areas--and my husband who's never been to Italy at all.
Bearing that in mind, do you think I've alloted our time in the
various cities well--with possibly a side trip to Siena while staying
in Florence --or wherever else you suggest? I'm flexible. THANKS!

If you wish to persuade your husband of the glories of Italy you do not
want to go to the North in November...come back in the spring.
Go far south in November ...even then there are no guarantees.
Mike Bird



In article , tim
writes

"sharala" wrote in message
. com...
I'm planning an early November trip to Italy, beginning with a 2 night
stay in Milan. I was hoping to make a day trip to Maggiore or Como.
Would it be worth it, weather-wise?

Not sure if it reaches up into the lake region, but you can
virtually guarentee that the plains of Lombardy will be fog-bound
for parts of November.

Will certain attractions like in
the Borromean islands on Lago Maggiore have visiting hours then?

My much out of date book (1989) says that they open until the
third week of October

Sorry that I can't be more positive, November is a great time
for south Italy, for the northern part it's much less certain.

tim

If a
day trip to the lakes isn't a good idea in November, can you suggest
another alternative out of Milan for a day?
I have in mind at this point, 2 nights in Milan, 2 in Venice, 3 in
Florence and 4 in Rome for me--who has been to all but Milan and the
surrounding areas--and my husband who's never been to Italy at all.
Bearing that in mind, do you think I've alloted our time in the
various cities well--with possibly a side trip to Siena while staying
in Florence --or wherever else you suggest? I'm flexible. THANKS!



--
mikeandpambird

"sharala" ha scritto nel messaggio
om...
I'm planning an early November trip to Italy, beginning with a 2 night
stay in Milan. I was hoping to make a day trip to Maggiore or Como.
Would it be worth it, weather-wise? Will certain attractions like in
the Borromean islands on Lago Maggiore have visiting hours then? If a
day trip to the lakes isn't a good idea in November, can you suggest
another alternative out of Milan for a day?
I have in mind at this point, 2 nights in Milan, 2 in Venice, 3 in
Florence and 4 in Rome for me--who has been to all but Milan and the
surrounding areas--and my husband who's never been to Italy at all.
Bearing that in mind, do you think I've alloted our time in the
various cities well--with possibly a side trip to Siena while staying
in Florence --or wherever else you suggest? I'm flexible. THANKS!

Siena and its surroundings are marvelous. They'd deserve much more than a
mere side trip.
Instead November is an odd month for visiting lakes in the nothern Italy. If
I were you, I'd head south as soon as possible.

Edoardo

(sharala) wrote in
om:

I'm planning an early November trip to Italy, beginning with a 2
night stay in Milan. I was hoping to make a day trip to Maggiore
or Como. Would it be worth it, weather-wise? Will certain
attractions like in the Borromean islands on Lago Maggiore have
visiting hours then? If a day trip to the lakes isn't a good idea
in November, can you suggest another alternative out of Milan for
a day?

You could have bright days even in november, but usually the weather is
not so good in the lakes zone at the end of autumn.
If you decide to go to the Maggiore lake I suggest to visit "Santa
Caterina del Sasso Ballaro", it's a small church built in (not _on_) a
cliff. it's nice and there's a beautiful view of the lake.

If the weather is not so good, you may visit Bergamo (the highest part
of the city is called "Bergamo Alta" or "Città alta" is very nice).

--
Valter Minute
(the reply address of this message is invalid)

On 7 May 2004, sharala wrote:

I'm planning an early November trip to Italy, beginning with a 2 night
stay in Milan. I was hoping to make a day trip to Maggiore or Como.
Would it be worth it, weather-wise? Will certain attractions like in
the Borromean islands on Lago Maggiore have visiting hours then? If a

Early ? how early ? Nov 1 and 2 ? Remember that Nov 1 is a holiday.

The weather can vary from sunny but possibly cold, to foggy, to rainy,
who can tell ? Anyhow, it is likely to be less foggy the more you go
north, and more foggy south of Milan.

I have no idea about opening hours, sorry.

day trip to the lakes isn't a good idea in November, can you suggest
another alternative out of Milan for a day?

If the weather is fine, it's ok to go on the lakes. It is not fine, it
is likely to be bad even elsewhere. You might consider for instance to
go anyhow to Como, and then decide whether to sail the lake, to go up to
Brunate with the funicular, or just to see the city. You might consider
going to Bergamo (where the High City is quite nice). You might consider
the Certosa di Pavia (one stop before Pavia by train) ... to be avoided
in foggy days.

I have in mind at this point, 2 nights in Milan, 2 in Venice, 3 in

You could spend more in Venice, or stop on the route from Milan to
Venice, either in Verona or Brescia. If you want to see the city,
probably Verona is better. If you are interested in antiquities (roman,
paleo-christian and longobard), Brescia has an extremely nice museum at
Santa Giulia. If they will be also organizing some exhibition at the
time, it would be worthwhile to stop. Both places are on the main rail
line from Milan to Venice, so you could leave your luggage at the
station and do a visit.


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"Edoardo Vancini" wrote in message
...

"sharala" ha scritto nel messaggio


Siena and its surroundings are marvelous. They'd deserve much more than a
mere side trip.
Instead November is an odd month for visiting lakes in the nothern Italy.

It's an odd time to visit London too. Thousands do.
I suppose people just go on holiday whenever they can get
the time off and work around it.

tim



If I were you, I'd head south as soon as possible.

Edoardo

On 11 May 2004, sharala wrote:

Many thanks for your helpful suggestions. Bergamo is a possibility I
had not considered before. How long is a train ride there? And I also

Bergamo is about one hour by train, but you should check the departure
station on timetable. There are two train lines from Milan to Bergamo,
and several stations.

One line goes via Treviglio. Some direct trains may depart from Central
station, other commuter trains from other stations, but they will all
stop also at Lambrate (sorry, I do not care about the origin station
since Lambrate is closer to where I live and work).

The other line goes via Carnate-Usmate. I guess most trains will depart
from Porta Garibaldi (PG, PG, Centrale and Lambrate are all on the metro
green line), and stop also at Greco Pirelli and Sesto San Giovanni (this
is outside of the commune of Milan, but reachable by metro red line with
extraurban ticket). This line passes also through Monza, and crosses
the Adda river on the Paderno bridge

There are also buses (coaches) to Bergamo, I am not sure where they
depart from (they used to depart from Piazza Castello but perhaps
they've been moved to Porta Garibaldi). I would avoid them because the
motorway is very crowded. The only case I take them, is when I go to the
mountains, since I have a guaranteed connection with an other bus at
Bergamo bus station, but that's early in the morning and the motorway is
free. I catch the bus outside of Sesto San Giovanni station, because I
can get there by metro faster than going to the terminus and then spend
20 minutes in the city traffic.

From Bergamo station you should take a local bus to the foot of the
funicular which leads to Citta' Alta (enquire at a tourist office in
Milan if there are combo train-bus-funicular tickets), or you can walk
if you want to see a bit of the Citta' Bassa and stroll through the
Sentierone.

(Sentierone, or "Senteru'" in the local dialect, is the nickname for the
main street of the lower city. A "sentiero" is a mountain footpath, and
"sentierone" means just "large footpath", since the mountain people
coming down from the valleys used to call it that way !).

I mentioned Monza, which you can reach in 20 min by train or in a longer
time by several bus lines. You might want to visit the Duomo, the chapel
of the Iron Crown, and the Treasure (Museo Serpero). Monza was capital
of the Langobard kingdom at the time of queen Teodolinda (6-7th
century), the iron crown is a piece of jewellery of the time (said to
contain one of the Holy Cross nails), while the Treasure contains
several other pieces of the same epoch. I remember I was very impressed
when I was a 9-year old child.

The Paderno bridge is a masterpiece of industrial archeology, an iron
bridge across the canyon of river Adda, which is some 90 m below the
level of the plain. If it were another season, you could stop at
Paderno-Robbiate, go down to the river, and have a 13 km walk to Trezzo
(from where you can return to Milan bu bus+metro) with other interesting
industrial archeology sights. This part of river Adda cannot be
navigated because of rapids (it's the scenery in the background of
Leonardo's Virgin of the Rocks) so betwen 1600 and 1700 they built a
canal, and later a couple of power stations.

What do you recommend in Verona? I'm not that interested in the

There are roman remains (the Arena, at least one gate etc.), there is
the church of San Zeno (and others), the tombs of the Scaligeri, a nice
museum at Castelvecchio, and nice sights along river Adige.

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