Northern Italy – Part 1: Milan

If you’ve ever dreamed of traveling to Italy, then you are going to want to follow along.  I just returned from the most amazing trip to Northern Italy and cannot wait to share it with you. We explored Milan, Trento, Verona, Venice, Bolzano, Cortina (the Dolomites!), Sirmione  at Lake Garda), Lake Como, and Stresa at Lake Maggiore.  It was a like a living postcard with the most remarkable scenery.  And I’m sharing all of the details…

Have you ever heard… Think It and It Will Happen!?

Well, exactly one year ago,  I turned on Amazon Prime and began watching travel documentaries.  The one I was most captivated by was the one featuring the Dolomites, the mountain range in northeastern Italy and the Italian Alps.  The Dolomites are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The documentary featured the Brenner Pass, the roadway that leads from Austria into northern Italy and straight through the Dolomites.  Eighteen peaks, vertical cliffs, jagged rock, and the most amazing views I’ve ever seen (even on TV).

I said right then and there that I would see the Dolomites in my lifetime.  I didn’t know how, I didn’t know with who, and I didn’t know when, but I knew I would go there. 

I’ve never traveled overseas and hadn’t had a week-long vacation in nearly 20 years.  The kids are now grown and we’ve been done with expensive club sports and college bills for a few years. So I’ve been saving.

Fast forward six months to February…  My sister called and asked if I would like to travel with her in the Fall.  I didn’t even hesitate…. YES, I would love to go and can we please go to northern Italy to see the Dolomites?!

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Insight Vacations

To simplify the planning, we opted for a bus tour with Insight Vacations which was arrange through a travel agent at our local AAA office.

Tip:  It was nice being able to sit with our local agent to review the trip details before left.  She also helped us order euros to take with us.  Do this at least a week before you leave.

The Insight Vacations tour was definitely the perfect choice for us for so many reasons…

• We talked to and highly enjoyed every one of the 37 travelers on our tour. They came from the USA, Canada, Australia, Singapore, and India.  There was not one bad egg on our bus.  Everyone was interesting, pleasant, adventurous, kind, and had a story to tell.
• Our tour guide, Mattia, was from Italy. He told us stories about each city/town’s history and his own family tales of growing up in Italy.  He was at the top of his game for the full 11 days and kept us both interested and safe (especially in and out of those water taxis in Venice!)
• Our bus driver, Antonello, was also Italian. He spoke very little English but was so kind and a very cautious driver – exactly what you want driving the narrow, winding cliff roads up into the mountains.
• The tour included a ton but also offered about 8 extra excursions we could do for an additional fee ($49-$89 each).  These were well worth it. We were happy to let our guide do the planning and lead the way.
• And I’ll get to the many other reasons why…

My sister, Lisa, and I arrived in Milan one day before were were scheduled to meet our tour group.  I highly recommend doing this if you’re meeting a group.  It gives you time to adjust to the time change after a very long flight.  A few people just barely made our first group tour because of flight delays, so we were happy we avoided that stress.

From MXP (Milan) airport, we called a car using the FreeNow app.  This is the equivalent car service to Uber or Lift in the USA.  The 45 minute drive from the airport to our hotel, the Duo Milan (a Marriott hotel), cost about 112 euros ($130).

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Brera

The next morning we had time to explore, so we took another car over to Brera.  This is a beautiful, clean shopping district with old-world buildings with center gardens, small shops, cobblestone streets, restaurants, and outdoor cafes (you’ll hear me say that line for almost every town we visited).

Tip:   The Brera district would have been a nice area book a hotel for one night.

That afternoon around 3:00pm, we met our tour group in the hotel lobby for a walking tour and then a group dinner back in Brera. We even caught this photo shoot in action…

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The Duomo Cathedral

We visited the Duomo cathedral, the largest church in Italy capable of holding 40,000 people. The exterior featues 135 spires, each with a statue.  The highest spire is a gold statue of the Virgin Mary.

I’ll be sharing more photos of Milan and our northern Italy tour over on Facebook and Instagram.

Sign up below to be notified when new posts are added. You’re not going to want to miss the Dolomites and the Lakes!

And stay tuned… next up is Trento & Verona