FODOR’S VENICE & THE BEST OF NORTHERN ITALY, 1st EDITION: A GREAT ITINERARY

Day 1: Bellagio If you’re flying to northern Italy from overseas, there’s no better way to rest up after a long flight than a day on Lake Como, combining some of Italy’s most beautiful scenery with elegant historic villas and gardens. At the center of it all is Bellagio, a pretty village with world-class restaurants and hotels, as well as more economical options. From Bellagio you can ferry to other points along the lake, take walking tours, go hiking, or just sit on a terrace watching the light play on the sapphire water and the snowcapped mountains in the distance.

Logistics: There are inexpensive bus-train combinations from Milan’s Malpensa airport. A limousine service, Fly to Lake (www.flytolake.com), leaves Malpensa four times per day (€35– €70 per person depending on the number of travelers, no service Sunday, late fall, or winter). The trip takes a little over two hours. In Bellagio you won’t need a car, since most of your touring will be on foot, by ferry, or by bus.

Day 2: Milan After a leisurely breakfast in Bellagio, take the ferry to Varenna (15 minutes) and then the train (1 hour, 15 minutes) to Milan’s Central Station. Milan is a leading center of fashion and design, and many visitors keep to the area of elegant shops around Via Montenapoleone. But the city also houses some of Europe’s great art treasures in the Brera Gallery and has two churches by Bramante, perhaps the most refined of the Italian High Renaissance architects. And then, of course, there’s Leonardo’s Last Supper. You may want to spend your evening taking in an opera at Italy’s most illustrious opera house, La Scala.

Logistics: Central Milan is compact, with excellent public transportation. Milan does have its share of crime; keep an eye on your possessions around the train station and avoid hotels in that area.

Days 3 to 5: Verona/Mantua/Vicenza Take an early express train to Verona (1½ hours from Milan) and settle into your hotel, where you’ll stay for three nights; you’ll be using this stately medieval city as your base to see three of the most important art cities in northern Italy. Verona, with its ancient Roman arena, theater, and city gates, its brooding medieval palaces and castle, and its graceful bridge spanning the Adige, is probably the most immediately impressive of the three, and you’ll want to spend the first day exploring its attractions. But the real artistic treasures are in the two smaller cities you’ll see on day trips out of Verona.

The next day, take a short train trip to Mantua (30–45 minutes). Be sure to arrive in time for lunch, because Mantua has one of the most interesting local cuisines in northern Italy. The great local specialty is tortelli di zucca (pumpkin-, cheese-, and almond-paste-filled ravioli), served with sage butter and Parmesan cheese. The top artistic attractions are the Mantegna frescoes in the Palazzo Ducale, and you should also pay a visit to Giulio Romano’s Palazzo Te, a 16th- century pleasure palace, on the outskirts of town. Take the train back to Verona in time for dinner, and perhaps catch an opera performance in Verona’s Roman amphitheater.

 2011 Fodor's Travel, a division of Random House, Inc.

The day after, take a short train trip to Vicenza (30 minutes) to see the palaces, villas, and public buildings of the lion of late 16th-century architecture, Andrea Palladio. Don’t miss his Teatro Olimpico and his most famous villa, La Rotonda, slightly out of town. For lunch, try the baccalà alla vicentina, the local version of dried salt cod, which is surprisingly good. Also be sure to see the frescoes by Gianbattista and Giandomenico Tiepolo in the Villa dei Nani, near the Rotonda. In spring and summer there are musical performances in the Teatro Olimpico; if you want to attend, you will have to book a hotel in Vicenza for the night, since you will miss the last train back to Verona.

Day 6: Padua Most people visit this important art and university center on a day trip out of Venice, but then they miss one of Padua’s main attractions, the nightlife that goes on in the city’s wine bars and cafés from evening until quite late. Most cities in northern Italy, even Venice and Milan, have surprisingly little to offer after dinner or the theater, but in Padua, going out for a nightcap or coffee with friends is a tradition, not only for students but also for older folks. Arrive early enough to see at least the Giotto frescoes in the Cappella degli Scrovegni and the Basilica di San Antonio before lunch, then spend a relaxing afternoon at the Villa Pisani, enjoying its gardens and important Tiepolo fresco.

Logistics: Trains are frequent to Padua from Verona (1 hour) and Vicenza (30 minutes); you don’t really have to schedule ahead.

Day 7: Venice Three days are hardly enough to see one of the world’s most beautiful cities and one of the cradles of modern Western civilization. But running from museum to museum, church to church would be a mistake, since Venice is a wonderful place to stroll or “hang out,” taking in some of the atmosphere that inspired such great art.

The first things you will probably want to do in Venice are to take a vaporetto ride down the Grand Canal and see the Piazza San Marco. These are best done in the morning; before 8:30 you’ll avoid rush hour on the vaporetto, and while there’s likely to be a line at San Marco when it opens, you’ll be better off then than later in the day. Move on to the adjacent Palazzo Ducale and Sansovino’s Biblioteca Marciana, facing it in the Piazzetta.

For lunch, take vaporetto 1 to the Ca’Rezzonico stop and have a sandwich and a spritz in the Campo Santa Margherita, where you can mingle with the university students in one of Venice’s most lively squares. From there, make your way to the Galleria dell’Accademia and spend a few hours taking in its wonderful collection of Venetian painting. In the evening, take a walk up the Zattere and have a drink at one of the cafés overlooking the Canale della Giudecca.

Logistics: Be careful selecting your early train from Padua to Venice; some can be very slow. The 7:38 is one of the fastest (34 minutes), and will get you into Venice in time to beat rush hour on the Grand Canal vaporetto. To get an early start, unless your hotel is very near San Marco, deposit your luggage at the station, and pick it up later, after you’ve seen the piazza. Seeing the

 2011 Fodor's Travel, a division of Random House, Inc. Grand Canal and Piazza San Marco in relative tranquility will be your reward for getting up at the crack of dawn and a little extra planning . Day 8: Venice If the Accademia has just whet your appetite for Venetian painting, start out the day by visiting churches and institutions where you can see more of it. For Titian, go to Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari church and Santa Maria della Salute; for Tintoretto, Scuola Grande di San Rocco; for Bellini, the Frari and San Giovanni e Paolo; for Tiepolo, Ca’ Rezzonico, Scuola Grande dei Carmini, and the Gesuati; for Carpaccio, Scuola di San Giorgio; and for Veronese, San Sebastiano. If your taste runs to more modern art, there is the Guggenheim Collection and, down the street from it, the Pinault collection in the refashioned Punta della Dogana.

In the afternoon, head for the Fondamenta Nuova station to catch a vaporetto to one or more of the outer islands: Murano, where you can shop for Venetian glass and visit the glass museum and workshops; Burano, known for lace-making and colorful houses; and Torcello, Venice’s first inhabited island, home to a beautiful cathedral.

Day 9: Venice Venice is more than a museum—it’s a lively city, and the best way to see that aspect of La Serenissima is to pay a visit to the Rialto Market, where the Venetians buy their fruits and vegetables and, most important, their fish, at one of Europe’s largest and most varied fish markets. Have lunch in one of the excellent restaurants in the market area.

On your last afternoon in Venice, allow time to sit and enjoy a coffee or spritz in one of the city’s lively squares or in a café along the Fondamenta della Misericordia in Cannaregio, simply watching the Venetians go about their daily lives. There’s certainly a good deal more art and architecture to see in the city, and if you can’t resist squeezing in another few churches, you may want to see Palladio’s masterpiece of ecclesiastical architecture, the Redentore church on the Giudecca, or Tullio Lombardo’s lyrical Miracoli, a short walk from the San Marco end of the Rialto Bridge.

Day 10: Venice/Departure Take one last vaporetto trip up the Grand Canal to Piazzale Roma and, after saying good-bye to Venice, catch city bus 5 to the airport.

 2011 Fodor's Travel, a division of Random House, Inc.