Italian Lakes Novice- talk to me

Italian Lakes Novice- talk to me

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Original Poster:

10,769 posts

278 months

Friday 2nd February 2018
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Thinking of 10 days in the Italian lakes this May or June. Never been, so after any advice as to base location, must see places and driving roads you've driven.
Plan was to hire a car and get out and about, last year we went to Zell am See and drove the Grossglockner in a hired Abarth 595 which was fun.
Obviously aware there are a few bases we could stay on Garda, Maggiore, Lugano or Como, we'd be probably looking for a nice lakeside hotel on one of the above with parking etc.
fire away if you can help!
many thanks

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Original Poster:

10,769 posts

278 months

Friday 2nd February 2018
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2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:
just looking at your trip now, will have a proper study later!

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Original Poster:

10,769 posts

278 months

Friday 2nd February 2018
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rcspeirs said:
Beautiful scenery. Vile traffic in most places, zero driving enjoyment along the lake shore, because of traffic.
thinking of a base where we can do a few boat trips, shops, lounging about and perhaps hire a car for 3 days perhaps to drive any famous mountain passes etc, rather than sat daily in traffic touring.

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Original Poster:

10,769 posts

278 months

Friday 2nd February 2018
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The Leaper said:
Bellagio is the most convenient place on Lake Como to be based due to the multiple ferry routes available from there....use Google to get a copy of the ferry route map. Can recommend The Metropole Hotel, must have a lakeside view. Fab scenery. Could take a seaplane trip from near Como itself if you wish to do something a bit special.

R.
That sounds cool !

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Original Poster:

10,769 posts

278 months

Friday 2nd February 2018
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Dinoboy said:
And remember the Mille Miglia in May!
Ah interesting. Will see when it is. Stelvio or similar would be cool, I enjoyed driving the Grossglockner pass last year even though it was only in a 595 it was fun.

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Original Poster:

10,769 posts

278 months

Saturday 3rd February 2018
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So spent an hour on Google maps looking at routes and base locations. Bellagio looks great as does Varenna as mentioned. If I'm committing to a stelvio pass day ( and I probably would want to drive it having gone so close to it) then it's showing 3hrs plus from Bellagio using a ferry to the bottom of the pass itself and an hour less from Varenna. That's going to be a long day driving but doable I suspect.
Riva Del Garda looks similar length driving and equally nice. I think it's narrowed down to these 3 areas but I need to do some reading on trip advisor around hotels etc now

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Original Poster:

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278 months

Saturday 3rd February 2018
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PositronicRay said:
Take a small narrow car, short wheelbase and good ground clearance would be ideal.

There's a reason why the local fuzz drive Panda 4x4s. We took an Audi A6, not suitable at all.
Yea we'll be hiring anyway so I'm assuming a fiat 500 or similar.

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Original Poster:

10,769 posts

278 months

Saturday 3rd February 2018
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Sounds very promising so far!

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Original Poster:

10,769 posts

278 months

Friday 23rd February 2018
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Kewy said:
Just come back from a short weekend break down by the lakes. We stayed in Varese and ventured out in the hire car each day, one day we went west and drove a full circle round lake Maggiore, another day we went east and drove a full circle round Como.

Would recommend checking out Lavertezzo which is just north of Maggiore, and if you want an alpine pass that is close to Como then check out the Maloja Pass, not far and great views from the top.

Our trip wasn't really a driving holiday, just managed to squeeze some nice routes in. Going back down in Sept/Oct to do the full alpine tour (Southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy), planning it as we speak!
Thanks that's similar to what we were planning I guess.