Northern Italy covers a lot of ground, and it changes character quickly. You can spend a morning on a mountain train in the Alps and finish the same day with your feet up beside a lake that Roman poets were writing about two thousand years ago.
In between sit walled towns, lemon groves, fishing villages, and some of the best food and wine in a country that takes its cooking seriously.
That range is the appeal. It's also the catch. There's more here than anyone can see in one trip, so the real skill is choosing a few places and giving them proper time.
This guide walks you through the best places to visit in Northern Italy, how to travel between them, and a handful of routes you can adapt for 7, 10 and 14-day trips. Treat it as a starting point for your own Northern Italy travel itinerary rather than a fixed plan.
- On a Northern Italy tour, our local team handle the logistics, so you can concentrate on the eating
How to get around Northern Italy
There are a few options here, and the right one depends on the kind of trip you want.
By car
Self-drive suits the traveller who wants to pull over for a village they'd never heard of, or take the switchbacks up to a viewpoint with no bus route. The lakes really reward this kind of wandering.
Distances between the main stops are short, too – it’s roughly 70 kilometres (43 miles) from Milan to Lake Como, and about 200 kilometres (124 miles) from Garda to Como. This means you’ll spend more of the day out of the car than in it.
- Browse the self-drive tours of Italy with routes and hotels already arranged.
- Related: Tips for driving in Italy
By train
Northern Italy has one of the densest train networks in Europe, which is great for you because it’s a relatively fast, affordable and reliable way to get around this region of Italy. And, most trains drop you at a central train station within walking distance of the old town.
Other public transportation covers the lake region well, too. Especially the passenger ferries that hop between the towns on Lake Como in 15–30 minutes. Plenty of trips mix all of this. You might take the train through the Alps, then pick up a car for the lakes.
With a guide
Prefer to let someone else read the map? On a small group tour of Italy, a local guide handles the logistics and the driving while you enjoy the ride.
It’s a relaxed way to travel if you’d rather not drive, and a good shout if it’s your first time in the region. For something more tailored, a private guide builds the days around you and yours alone.
- Travelling as two? Our Italy honeymoon and romance tours are built for slow mornings and long dinners
- Related: Best places to visit in Italy
7-day Northern Italy itinerary: Lake Como & Garda
Short on time? A week is plenty for the two big lakes, Como and Garda, done properly.
Fly into Milan and make straight for Lake Como. Give it 3 nights; long enough to settle into a lakeside base and let the ferries do the work. They can hop between the towns in 15–30 minutes.
You can lunch in Bellagio, wander Varenna's botanic garden at Villa Monastero, and still catch Villa del Balbianello, the terraced villa you’ll easily recognise from Star Wars and a Bond film.
Order the perch risotto at a table by the water in the late afternoon, and you’ll see why people keep coming back. Got a spare day? Slip across to Lake Maggiore for the Borromean Islands, where a baroque palace and its terraced gardens fill an entire island and white peacocks pick through the hedges.
Then shift east to Lake Garda for 3 more nights. The southern end is warm and Mediterranean: start at Sirmione, out on its thin peninsula, with the Roman ruins of the Grotte di Catullo at the tip. Nearby, Peschiera del Garda sits inside a star-shaped fortress – a set of Venetian walls now protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Head north, and the scenery turns Alpine, with a cable car at Malcesine lifting you up Monte Baldo for panoramic views over the whole lake, and the lemon terraces of Limone sul Garda along the shore.
Fold in a day trip to Verona, too – its nearly 2,000-year-old Roman arena, and the walk up to Castel San Pietro at dusk for the finest views of the city. Then it’s back to Milan for your flight home.
- Related: Best things to do in Lake Como
10-day Northern Italy itinerary: Venice, the lakes & Milan
With 10 days and a hire car, you can bookend the lakes with two of Italy’s headliners.
Start in Venice with 2 nights. Here you can see St Mark's early, before the crowds. Then step away for ten minutes, and you'll find a silent canal and a tiny barcaro pouring wine and serving cicchetti.
From there, point the car west. Break the drive in Verona, then settle on Lake Garda for 2 or 3 nights of castle towns, lemon groves and lake swims.
Carry on to Lake Como for another 2 or 3 nights, where the villas and the ferries do their thing. Save Milan for last: the Gothic Duomo filling the main square, the glass-roofed Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II next door, and Leonardo’s Last Supper at Santa Maria delle Grazie if you booked well ahead – the timed tickets go quickly. Fly home from there.
14-day Northern Italy itinerary ideas
With 2 weeks, you can pair Northern Italy with somewhere else entirely. Here are two of our favourite ways to do it.
Northern Italy, plus Rome & Tuscany
If it's your first time in Italy and you want the full sweep, combine the northern lakes with the country's headline acts further south.
Spend the first stretch up north: a night or two in Milan, then Lake Como, before heading down to Tuscany. Spend 2–3 nights in Florence, and visit vineyards via cypress-lined roads.
Finish in Rome, where a couple of thousand years of history are stacked up on every corner. If you’d like a little coastline in the mix, it’s not a big leap to detour to Cinque Terre. These are the five fishing villages pinned to the Ligurian cliffs; it’s easy to spend a night or two here.
- If, like us, one country never feels like quite enough, try our multi-country Alps tours
Northern Italy & the Alps
If mountains are the real draw, let Northern Italy share the bill with the Alps.
One option is a self-drive loop that strings together Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Austria, so you wake up under a different set of peaks every few days and still get your fill of Italian lakes and pasta (because we all know you’re there for the pasta).
Prefer to leave the driving behind? Train is one of the best ways to travel here. A rail journey from Switzerland into Italy carries you over famous mountain routes like the Bernina Express (yes, that UNESCO World Heritage line) before dropping you among the lakes.
And if you want more Italian mountains, you could add a couple of nights for a stay in the Dolomites, whose pale limestone peaks turn pink at sunrise. Either way, this is the way to get Alpine views with your espresso.
- Related: Top things to do in Northern Italy
Best time to visit Northern Italy
When you travel will shape your trip more than you might expect.
Late spring and early autumn are the best times to visit the lakes. May and June are the sweet spot: the water is warming, and villa gardens are at their peak, well before the summer crowds land.
Early autumn, from September into October, is just as good, with softer light and the vineyards busy with the harvest. You can still swim on a warm day.
High summer is glorious but crowded, particularly in Cinque Terre and the honeypot lake towns, so if July or August is your only window, book early and start your days before the coach parties arrive.
Winter has its own case. The Dolomites turn into world-class ski country, and Verona lays on heart-shaped markets and special lighting around Valentine’s Day for its “Verona in Love” weekend.
See the best of Northern Italy with Nordic Visitor
Northern Italy always lives up to the hype. The hard part of visiting is fitting everything worth doing into the days you have.
That's the part we’ll take off your hands. Our local team, based in Munich and Rome, builds the route around what you actually want to see and arranges the hotels and transport, leaving you free for the wandering and the eating.
Northern Italy is really only half the story, so go see what the rest of the country’s been up to with our Italy tours.
Ready to start planning? Get in touch with our travel experts, and we'll help you shape your Northern Italy itinerary.
