Any recommendations for 2 weeks in Northern Italy (and Cinque Terre)? We have a rough itinerary (couple days in Milan, few days in Cinque Terre, couple days in Verona, a good chunk of days in the Dolomites, and ending with Lakes Como and Maggiore).
Any must does in those areas? Best hikes you've done in the Dolomites (I'd consider us intermediate hikers. We will have hiking polls and have done long hikes with good elevation gains in the Canadian and Montana Rockies, but don't really love hikes that involve significant scrambling and definitely not climbing)?
Restaurant recommendations? Lodging recommendations (or advice)?
In general, any good (or bad) experiences using With Locals or Get Your Guide?
Thanks in advance!
Florence is worth two days food alone!
Quote from: wadesworld on June 08, 2024, 11:06:27 PM
Any recommendations for 2 weeks in Northern Italy (and Cinque Terre)? We have a rough itinerary (couple days in Milan, few days in Cinque Terre, couple days in Verona, a good chunk of days in the Dolomites, and ending with Lakes Como and Maggiore).
Any must does in those areas? Best hikes you've done in the Dolomites (I'd consider us intermediate hikers. We will have hiking polls and have done long hikes with good elevation gains in the Canadian and Montana Rockies, but don't really love hikes that involve significant scrambling and definitely not climbing)?
Restaurant recommendations? Lodging recommendations (or advice)?
In general, any good (or bad) experiences using With Locals or Get Your Guide?
Thanks in advance!
Don't spend too much time in Milan. We ran out of things to do after 3 days. If you're going all the way to Verona, you'd be a fool to skip Venice. The city is absolutely magical.
If you decide to go to Cinque Terra, consider staying in La Spezia and taking the train up. It'll be cheaper, and there are plenty of really good restaurants in La Spezia. We stayed here: https://thepoethotel.it/
Also, I'd second Florence but it seems like you're not headed that far south.
Seems like a lot of stops. Lots of times spent traveling, packing, checking in and out of lodging.
Agree on the advice on Milan. Maybe even skip it for less stops.
Quote from: pbiflyer on June 09, 2024, 06:09:36 PM
Seems like a lot of stops. Lots of times spent traveling, packing, checking in and out of lodging.
Agree on the advice on Milan. Maybe even skip it for less stops.
Yes. I haven't been there for 15 yrs but I couldn't agree more about skipping Milan.
Quote from: MuggsyB on June 09, 2024, 06:58:20 PM
Yes. I haven't been there for 15 yrs but I couldn't agree more about skipping Milan.
Yeah, when we were there in 2019, we checked out the Cathedral, the cemetery, and the old Sforzesco Castle... which is an art museum. The food was great as well as the idea of aperitivo... but I won't be returning for any of those things.
We did a sunset boat ride in Cinque Terra which was awesome. Had dolphins swimming right next to our boat.
I have never been to Milan, but when my wife planned our trip, she said I wasn't missing a whole lot. I would second Venice. It was by far my favorite place we visited.
Quote from: cheebs09 on June 12, 2024, 09:22:47 AM
We did a sunset boat ride in Cinque Terra which was awesome. Had dolphins swimming right next to our boat.
I have never been to Milan, but when my wife planned our trip, she said I wasn't missing a whole lot. I would second Venice. It was by far my favorite place we visited.
Venice is really cool but a couple days were enough for me there
Would suggest hitting Genoa if you have time and Florence both were fantastic for food.
We did Airbnb in cinque terre for very cheap. Be warned for walking between town it's a hike and very hilly. Wife and I are decent hikers but after a couple glasses of wine and wearing sandals we were not prepared for that.
Quote from: Galway Eagle on June 12, 2024, 02:15:07 PM
Would suggest hitting Genoa if you have time and Florence both were fantastic for food.
We did Airbnb in cinque terre for very cheap. Be warned for walking between town it's a hike and very hilly. Wife and I are decent hikers but after a couple glasses of wine and wearing sandals we were not prepared for that.
We got a bit of distance on the trail, but my wife became more and more terrified of the heights, and it is pretty strenuous.
Quote from: Plaque Lives Matter! on June 12, 2024, 12:10:58 PM
Venice is really cool but a couple days were enough for me there
Really depends on the time of year. But I agree unless you want to settle in and be a local for a week. Assuming the itinerary is still in flux and thus won't be in the summer, Venice is way more enjoyable.
Quote from: Galway Eagle on June 12, 2024, 02:15:07 PM
Would suggest hitting Genoa if you have time and Florence both were fantastic for food.
Florence has been raved about ad nauseam (for good reason!), but Genoa is probably the most underrated major city in Italy IMO. Very cool place
Bologna is very underrated as a food destination.
Firenze is awesome!
And everything is so walkable.
I couldn't drink enough Chianti and Montepulicano.
I will 2nd Bologna. I also thoroughly enjoyed Torino as well as Siena.
Quote from: lawdog77 on June 12, 2024, 02:44:15 PM
Bologna is very underrated as a food destination.
I thought their sandwiches were meh.
Quote from: warriorchick on June 16, 2024, 09:17:44 PM
I thought their sandwiches were meh.
This is mortadella erasure
Bumping for
@21Jumpstreet . What we ended up doing for most of the Dolomite part of our trip was driving into towns that had the Dolomiti Bus system and we would park in the town and take the buses up into the Dolomites to different trailheads. The roads were fine but it could get parked up, plus when you'd come to a switchback in the road and meet one of the Dolomiti Buses coming from the other direction, that felt like it could get a bit hairy. The buses were great, you just had to pay attention to their schedules because some only ran every 2 hours, or only stopped at certain stops. And they were all cash only. Some of the drivers were very friendly and helpful, and others basically said "Hope you know where you want to get off the bus because we're not going to tell you where you want to get off."
We were there in July, which was definitely busy season. I have coworkers in Bergamo who were very helpful with deciding which areas to visit, and also warned us that it would be crowded at that time but it's the time that worked for us. Some of the hikes were very crowded and others were very secluded. I have a spreadsheet of all the hikes we considered and am looking through photos to try to remember which ones we did, but I might miss some here or there. Happy to email you the spreadsheet we had, which had some lodging from our trip as well.
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/italy/veneto/baita-bai-de-dones-cinque-torri
We were crunched on time with this hike and there was some bad weather forecasted for that day, so instead of really doing the actual hike, we ended up taking the lift up to the top and hiking around the picturesque area. It was very cool but busy. We took the bus from Cortina d'Ampezzo, which is where the bakery with all the shortbread was.
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/italy/veneto/tre-cime-di-lavaredo-drei-zinnen
This was my wife's favorite but was the busiest of all of our hikes, and I think one of the more popular hikes there. Definitely worth doing. I remember this being one of the longer and windier bus rides. I think you need a reservation if you plan to drive there yourself. Otherwise we took the bus from Cortina d'Ampezzo.
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/italy/south-tyrol/seceda-rifugio-firenze-col-raiser
We took lifts up to Seceda and did a point to point hike there. It was busy at the top of Seceda, but once we got about 25-30 minutes into the hike it cleared out quite a bit. This was probably my favorite hike, but logistically it was also the most difficult to get to where you wanted to be. You take two lifts up, and I thought the hike took you back down to the first lift where you could take the lift back down and end up where you parked. It ended up going to a different lift and you wound up a couple miles from the bottom of the lifts you took up, but fortunately we were able to catch a bus and get back to where we wanted to be. If I were doing it again, I might hike a couple miles and then turn around and hike right back up and take the same lifts down. This one we did drive (in Val Gardena) ourselves to as we were heading out of the Dolomites, so it was our last hike there. None of the drives in Italy were particularly enjoyable. This one we got caught in the middle of a bike race.
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/italy/south-tyrol/monte-specie-via-prato-piazza
This was probably my other favorite hike. This was not busy at all. Awesome views from the top of the hike. I believe we picked up the bus in Monguelfo. Highly recommend this one.
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/italy/south-tyrol/via-delle-odle-zanser-alm-rifugio-delle-odle-malga-dusler
We did this hike the day we were getting into the Dolomites, so we drove to this one on our own. It was later in the day and some thunderstorms were in the forecast, and so I think we avoided pretty much all traffic. If it's busier I don't think it'd be a fun drive, mainly because there's a good chunk of road that is one lane with a couple pull offs. We did see a bus up there, so you can pick it up somewhere. We both really liked this one. You walk kind of along the mountains and through some fields that had horses and stuff. Very pretty and would absolutely do again.
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/italy/south-tyrol/lago-di-braies-pragser-wildsee
Easy walk around Lago di Braies. Very pretty. Somewhat reminded me of Lake Louise, but less crowded (though still busy for sure) and smaller. Had a little picnic there and I think we did the Monte Sepcie hike (2 above this) on the same day. I believe we also picked up the bus in Dobbiaco for this one.
https://www.earthtrekkers.com/best-hikes-in-the-dolomites/
We stayed in the same place the entire time we were in the Dolomites that was kind of in the middle of all these places. I think we drove anywhere from 25 minutes to 90 minutes to get to any of these towns.
Quote from: wadesworld on June 20, 2025, 04:20:03 PMBumping for @21Jumpstreet . What we ended up doing for most of the Dolomite part of our trip was driving into towns that had the Dolomiti Bus system and we would park in the town and take the buses up into the Dolomites to different trailheads. The roads were fine but it could get parked up, plus when you'd come to a switchback in the road and meet one of the Dolomiti Buses coming from the other direction, that felt like it could get a bit hairy. The buses were great, you just had to pay attention to their schedules because some only ran every 2 hours, or only stopped at certain stops. And they were all cash only. Some of the drivers were very friendly and helpful, and others basically said "Hope you know where you want to get off the bus because we're not going to tell you where you want to get off."
We were there in July, which was definitely busy season. I have coworkers in Bergamo who were very helpful with deciding which areas to visit, and also warned us that it would be crowded at that time but it's the time that worked for us. Some of the hikes were very crowded and others were very secluded. I have a spreadsheet of all the hikes we considered and am looking through photos to try to remember which ones we did, but I might miss some here or there. Happy to email you the spreadsheet we had, which had some lodging from our trip as well.
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/italy/veneto/baita-bai-de-dones-cinque-torri
We were crunched on time with this hike and there was some bad weather forecasted for that day, so instead of really doing the actual hike, we ended up taking the lift up to the top and hiking around the picturesque area. It was very cool but busy. We took the bus from Cortina d'Ampezzo, which is where the bakery with all the shortbread was.
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/italy/veneto/tre-cime-di-lavaredo-drei-zinnen
This was my wife's favorite but was the busiest of all of our hikes, and I think one of the more popular hikes there. Definitely worth doing. I remember this being one of the longer and windier bus rides. I think you need a reservation if you plan to drive there yourself. Otherwise we took the bus from Cortina d'Ampezzo.
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/italy/south-tyrol/seceda-rifugio-firenze-col-raiser
We took lifts up to Seceda and did a point to point hike there. It was busy at the top of Seceda, but once we got about 25-30 minutes into the hike it cleared out quite a bit. This was probably my favorite hike, but logistically it was also the most difficult to get to where you wanted to be. You take two lifts up, and I thought the hike took you back down to the first lift where you could take the lift back down and end up where you parked. It ended up going to a different lift and you wound up a couple miles from the bottom of the lifts you took up, but fortunately we were able to catch a bus and get back to where we wanted to be. If I were doing it again, I might hike a couple miles and then turn around and hike right back up and take the same lifts down. This one we did drive (in Val Gardena) ourselves to as we were heading out of the Dolomites, so it was our last hike there. None of the drives in Italy were particularly enjoyable. This one we got caught in the middle of a bike race.
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/italy/south-tyrol/monte-specie-via-prato-piazza
This was probably my other favorite hike. This was not busy at all. Awesome views from the top of the hike. I believe we picked up the bus in Monguelfo. Highly recommend this one.
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/italy/south-tyrol/via-delle-odle-zanser-alm-rifugio-delle-odle-malga-dusler
We did this hike the day we were getting into the Dolomites, so we drove to this one on our own. It was later in the day and some thunderstorms were in the forecast, and so I think we avoided pretty much all traffic. If it's busier I don't think it'd be a fun drive, mainly because there's a good chunk of road that is one lane with a couple pull offs. We did see a bus up there, so you can pick it up somewhere. We both really liked this one. You walk kind of along the mountains and through some fields that had horses and stuff. Very pretty and would absolutely do again.
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/italy/south-tyrol/lago-di-braies-pragser-wildsee
Easy walk around Lago di Braies. Very pretty. Somewhat reminded me of Lake Louise, but less crowded (though still busy for sure) and smaller. Had a little picnic there and I think we did the Monte Sepcie hike (2 above this) on the same day. I believe we also picked up the bus in Dobbiaco for this one.
https://www.earthtrekkers.com/best-hikes-in-the-dolomites/
We stayed in the same place the entire time we were in the Dolomites that was kind of in the middle of all these places. I think we drove anywhere from 25 minutes to 90 minutes to get to any of these towns.
Ugh. Italians
Jealous Wades. Sounds amazing
Thanks for the report. Awesome trip!
Darn,I just found a great lodging option in Milan. ;)
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/british-airways-crew-booked-sex-35423909
Quote from: pbiflyer on June 22, 2025, 11:13:09 AMDarn,I just found a great lodging option in Milan. ;)
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/british-airways-crew-booked-sex-35423909
So, when Wades told his wife he was goin' out for a pizza,...
NBC already has Ray Romano and Sebastian Maniscalco doing ads for the winter Olympics in Milan.
"Northern Italy, that's risotto country."
Quote from: MU Fan in Connecticut on June 23, 2025, 06:05:55 AMNBC already has Ray Romano and Sebastian Maniscalco doing ads for the winter Olympics in Milan.
"Northern Italy, that's risotto country."
Cortina is a low key gem with a lot of hiking opportunities. Planning a return next year
Cinque Terre is too busy now but years ago it was enjoyable. We arrived in Monterosa for lunch and my friend a Swiss Italian called the hotel Porta Roca inquiring about rooms. He was told none were available and asked me to wait 10 minutes and call again. I borrowed the restaraunt's phone and called. I was asked how many I required and reserved two. My friend said that they believed him to be Italian and refused to accommodate him. When we left I was told I was now on the list and eligible to come back. Delightful place and our room had a balcony right on the trail to Vernazza with a Mediterranean view.
Quote from: WellsstreetWanderer on June 27, 2025, 03:57:26 PMCortina is a low key gem with a lot of hiking opportunities. Planning a return next year
Cinque Terre is too busy now but years ago it was enjoyable. We arrived in Monterosa for lunch and my friend a Swiss Italian called the hotel Porta Roca inquiring about rooms. He was told none were available and asked me to wait 10 minutes and call again. I borrowed the restaraunt's phone and called. I was asked how many I required and reserved two. My friend said that they believed him to be Italian and refused to accommodate him. When we left I was told I was now on the list and eligible to come back. Delightful place and our room had a balcony right on the trail to Vernazza with a Mediterranean view.
Cinque Terre was my absolute favorite part of the trip. It was busy, but that didn't bother us. We had some amazing meals there. One of the days we took the train to Riomaggiore, got on the ferry that stops at the other 4 towns besides Corniglia up to Monterosso, and hiked back to Corniglia from there. As others have said, it's basically just stairs straight up and down the coast so it's not like it's a simple stroll, and it was July so it was incredibly hot. But totally worth it.
We got an AirBnB in Corniglia and our host was amazing. She was an older woman and told us she would meet us where the shuttle dropped us off in the middle of the town. We gave her a time, but the train we were coming in on was delayed and she was trying to tell us what other train we could get on, and once we got there she was trying to take our bags from us and wheel them along the brick, uphill pathway and carry them up stairs, but we were able to convince her to let us carry them. I think accidentally messaged her when I was trying to message the AirBnB host at our next stop and she replied a couple days later apologizing for not seeing the message and sending "Big hugs" our way. She gave us restaurant recommendations that were great and told us about the "beach" (aka just giant rocks you can lay out on and a little docking area for kayaks and small boats) that the locals go to rather than the one the tourists go to and we went there to cool off.