I had never travelled out from the north of Milan as there was no need to. I had always headed east towards our home town of Reggio-Emilia. In the summer of 2024 my wife wanted to take a trip to an Italian ranch. This was to have a taste of America. Unfortunately we couldn’t go there as she was pregnant. The next best thing was to visit a ranch in Italy, it also saved quite a bit of money! More on the ranch in another blog. So to travel there we needed to head back into Milan from Reggio-Emilia. As usual the train journey on the high speed AV line was easy, comfortable and enjoyable.

From Milan we took the train towards Desenzano del Garda, this is one of the main towns on the lake. On the train we met an Australian couple who were travelling to Verona on the same train. That made me think about a simple trip starting in Milan and finishing in Venice. On the northern route from Milan you could also easily visit Lake Garda and Verona. The great thing about this is that it is all on the same train line. The photos below show the FrecciaRossa 9733 and this service makes the stops required for this trip.

If you take this trip then you may choose to take a couple of nights in Milan. Our advice for Milan can be found here. Your first stop out of Milan will be Lake Garda. The train station to alight from will be Desenzano del Garda. It takes around 50 minutes top travel from Milan to Lake Garda. This is a popular tourist stop and also for those choosing to have their wedding near the lake. This makes it a suitable stop for tourists. The train station is small and quiet and on the outside of the town. Fortunately the town is small so it is not far from the hotels and apartments. You will need to take a small taxi ride. There was a little shortage of taxis when we arrived and not many options for Uber. Some people decided to walk into the town centre but with luggage a cab ride is more preferable. A couple of days here will be enough to enjoy the lake and have some relaxing time.

The photos are of the train station, the view from the train station and the local map. Although it was early September when we arrived it was unfortunately raining, hopefully the weather will be better for you.

Although we went to the ranch and not to Verona we have been there before. There is a brief guide to Verona on the website here. Some photos from one of our trips there are below to hopefully give you an idea. It is only about 20 minutes from the lake to Verona. Remember the town of Verona is small so it is easy to get around.

From Verona it is just over an hour to get to Venice. Again there is a guide on the website that can be found here. We won’t go over our tips for Venice again. But to give you some inspiration some of our photos from one of our trips are below. To be honest I couldn’t choose which were the best photos as there were so many to choose from.

Obviously you can do this trip in reverse if you fancy starting in Venice and finishing in Milan. There are also always options to change the trip to suit your needs. If you decide to change the trip we hope that this plan will provide you a starting point. If you follow our plan then our advice would be: two days in Milan, two days by the lake, one or two nights in Verona and three or four nights to enjoy Venice. There is also the option to have some time by the beach in Venice.