Day 1 · The Italian Lakes: Villa Life
Milan & the Journey North
Your driver meets you at Milan Malpensa and carries you north toward the lake district — the road from Milan to Como takes less than an hour, and the moment the landscape lifts from the Lombard plain into the lake district's particular combination of mountains and water is immediately apparent. You arrive at Varenna on the eastern shore of Como in time for the late afternoon: a small village built on a promontory above the lake, its narrow streets climbing from the lakefront piazza in a way that has not changed since the 19th century. Your hotel is a historic lakeside villa converted — a terrace above the water, the western shore visible across the lake, and in the distance on clear days the snow on the Alps above Lugano. Dinner in Varenna at a restaurant that has been serving local perch and misultin (sun-dried lake fish) from the same kitchen since the 1920s.
- Private transfer from Milan Malpensa to Lake Como
- Varenna village — a lakeside promontory unchanged for centuries
- Lake Como first view from a historic villa terrace
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