Getaways from Milan: day trips and destinations close by.

Malpensa, Linate and the Trenord regional trains

There are direct flights to Milan-Malpensa airport (MXP) from Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante, Málaga, Seville, Bilbao, Santander, A Coruña, Zaragoza, Palma, Gran Canaria, Tenerife South, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura. Milan has two other airports: Linate, the closest to the centre, with flights from Madrid, Barcelona, Gran Canaria and Tenerife South, and Bergamo, which adds routes from Asturias and Vitoria. From Malpensa, the Malpensa Express reaches Cadorna station in a little under forty minutes and Milano Centrale in about fifty; from Linate, metro line M4 drops you at San Babila in a quarter of an hour.

To get out, the train. Trenord regional trains link Milan with Como and Varenna, and on the lake you get around on the public boats. A car is a nuisance here: the shore roads are narrow, jam up in summer and parking at Bellagio or Varenna is expensive and difficult. The practical thing is to sleep in Milan the night before and set out early. The rest of the region, with Bergamo, Mantua and Lake Garda, is on the Lombardy page.

Como and Varenna, the two gateways to the lake

Everything that leaves Milan in the same place goes to Lake Como, a glacial lake shaped like an inverted Y at the foot of the Alps. There are two gateways and each has its plan.

60 minutes away, Como. From Milano Cadorna, trains to Como Lago leave roughly every half hour, for €4.80. The Brunate and seaplane day goes up by funicular to Brunate and the San Maurizio viewpoint, has lunch at a crotto in the hills and flies for half an hour over the lake in the afternoon, by reservation and if the weather allows.

64 minutes away, Varenna. From Milano Centrale, the Tirano line stops at Varenna-Esino, on the eastern shore of the centre of the lake. The Varenna and Bellagio day crosses by boat to Bellagio in a quarter of an hour, goes kayaking round the point, eats perch at La Punta and ends on the walkways of the Orrido di Bellano before the train back.

With two nights, Lake Como in two nights, 60 minutes away: a night in Como and another in Bellagio, with Balbianello and the Greenway, the kayak and the Orrido. You enter via Como and leave via Varenna, without retracing your steps and without touching the car.

The Langhe, the hills of Barolo and truffle, can also be reached from Milan by car, although their on-the-spot plans leave from Turin.

Gardens in bloom and boats on full timetable in spring

From April to June and in September and October is the best time on the lake: gardens in bloom at the villas, boats on full timetable and mild temperatures. It is when the Varenna and Bellagio day and the two-night getaway work, which depends on the Como and Bellagio hotels being open. July and August are hot and humid in Milan and the lakes fill up; take the first train.

The Brunate day is the only one that works almost all year, any day except Wednesday, when the crotto is closed. From 9 to 27 November 2026 the funicular is closed for works, and the seaplane depends on the sky: choose a clear day. From November to March many villas close and the boats reduce their timetables; it is the ski season in the Valtellina, to the north.

Varenna and Bellagio with a one-day boat ticket

• A day without a car, from spring to autumn: Varenna and Bellagio, with the one-day free-circulation boat ticket.
• Any day of the year: Brunate and the seaplane. Without the seaplane, the funicular and the crotto already fill the day.
• A weekend: Lake Como in two nights, Friday to Sunday, by train and boat.