Italy National Parks & Lakes - Advice Needed

[vvbellur]

Ciao Italy local guides 🙂 I need some help!

If I have just 7 days to spend in Italy, which are the top National Parks you would suggest to visit? While suggesting, please can you tell me only those places that have good public transport/connectivity from the city.

Also, what are your thoughts on the below National Parks? I am seeing some great reviews and very impressed with the photos just by doing a search on Maps. But wanted local guides' opinion. 🙂

• Parco Nazionale Gran Paradiso - (which city to stay?) 
• Parco Nazionale delle Cinque Terre - again, how to get there?
• Dolomites (can I stay in Venice and do a day trip?)
• Parco Naturale Adamello Brenta

And lastly, Lake Como or Lake Maggiore? 🙂

Thanks a ton!

[TorM]

@ErmesT

FYI

[ErmesT]

Thanks for tagging me @TorM.

Hi @vvbellur, good question, and not so easy to reply in a short way. I see you are concentrating your attention in sea (Cinque Terre), and Alps, from West (Gran Paradiso) to east (Dolomites), so:

Transportation: if you want to visit Cinque Terre, the best solution is to move by train. Train is the faster solution for moving between the small five towns, and then walking, in beautiful paths along the sea

Do not miss Via dell'amore (road of love), a beautiful ans easy path over the sea, from Riomaggiore to Manarola. It starts near the Train Station In Riomaggiore, to end near the train station in Manarola

From there, is very easy to reach Lunigiana (the valley of the moon) with a lot of beautifu castles

[ErmesT]

@vvbellur

following with my reply:

For the three mentioned parks in the Alps, the best solution is to rent a car. As you only have seven day, and of course is possible to reach every town with public transportation, please remember that we are talking about small towns in the middle of the mountains. This means only a few bus per day. Also keep in mind that, in this kind of big parks, the town is only the starting point to reach the real part of the park. I am used to move in  the "Parco delle Dolomiti". It takes 2,30 hours by car from Venice (I am living 30 minutes to Venice) and probably 4 hours by Train plus Bus, only to arrive to Auronzo di Cadore, that is only the base to move by car to Misurina Lake, where began the path for reaching the Tre cime di Lavaredo, the best place of the park.

Misurina Lake - View of the "Tre Cime"

Caption: Tre Cime di Lavaredo. on Dolomites Mountain - Photo Credit @Local Guide @ermest

The Path

The situations of the other Alpine Parks is not so different. It worth a visit, (well, I love the Alps) but you should make a choice

Painting a green world - Dolomites - 2017

Ermes

[vvbellur]

Oh wow @ErmesT... the pictures are so beautiful 🙂 Thank you so much for your tips. Yes, I love the mountains and want to see as much as possible.  I am still in my planning stages. It looks like I am going to give myself a couple of more days in Italy so that it will not be a hurried trip and I get to really enjoy it.  Hope you don't mind if I reach out to you again to fine tune my itinerary.

Thank you friend!

[ErmesT]

Of course @vvbellur

Feel free to contact me.

If you have a plan for Venice, please read: Venezia, an unconventional view

Ermes