The 4 Best Day Trips from Milan: Como, Bergamo & More

Milan is northern Italy’s train hub, which makes it a launchpad as much as a destination: a lake that stunned Roman poets, a walled hilltop town, a sleepy university city and Italy’s royal capital all sit within an hour of Milano Centrale, on cheap regional trains that need no advance booking. After the Milan essentials, these are the four day trips we would actually take, in order.

1. Lake Como: the obvious one, still the best one

Getting there: regional trains run from Milano Centrale to Como San Giovanni in around 40 minutes, or from Milano Cadorna to Como Lago in about an hour, both for a handful of euros each way with no reservation needed. For the postcard villages (Varenna, and Bellagio by ferry from there), take the Tirano-bound train to Varenna-Esino, roughly an hour from Centrale.

The day: our favourite version skips Como town quickly and goes straight to the mid-lake triangle: train to Varenna, wander its tiny harbour and flower-hung lanes, ferry across to Bellagio for lunch and the famous stepped streets, then a late ferry and train home. Mountains drop straight into blue water the whole way; you will understand immediately why the lake has been the escape of Milanese for two thousand years.

Budget note: trains and ferries for the whole loop run under 30 euro. The lakeside restaurants are where the bill can escape; a takeaway panino eaten on the ferry deck beats most of them anyway.

2. Bergamo: the walled beauty low-cost flyers ignore

Getting there: trains from Centrale take about 50 minutes for a few euro; from the station, bus 1 or the funicular climbs to the old town.

The day: Bergamo is two cities: a workaday lower town and, floating above it inside Venetian walls (UNESCO-listed), the Città Alta: cobbled lanes, the extraordinary Colleoni Chapel, and polenta-and-casoncelli lunches at half Milan prices. Thousands of travellers see only the airport named after this town; climbing the hill instead is one of northern Italy’s easiest wins. If you fly out of Bergamo airport, this day trip slots perfectly before an evening flight, as our Milan airports guide notes.

3. Pavia: the quiet one (we have a whole guide)

Thirty minutes and about 4 euro from Milan, Pavia is the anti-crowd option: a real university town of covered bridges and quiet piazzas, with the flamboyant Certosa di Pavia monastery as the headline sight one stop away. We liked it enough to write a full Pavia guide, cacio e pepe recommendations included.

4. Turin: the ambitious one

An hour by high-speed train (book ahead for fares from the mid-teens), Turin repays the longer ride with royal palaces, the Mole Antonelliana, bicerin coffee and the best chocolate culture in Italy, with barely a queue in sight. It is a big day but a brilliant one; our one-day Turin itinerary maps it hour by hour.

Which one should you pick?

• First time in the region, good weather: Lake Como, no contest. Aim for Varenna and Bellagio, not just Como town.
• Half a day or a pre-flight afternoon: Bergamo’s Città Alta.
• Crowd allergy: Pavia, plus the Certosa.
• Hungry for another whole city: Turin.
• Two spare days? Take the train onwards to Venice instead and make it a two-city trip; our itineraries page has the full menu.

All four run on regional trains where the flat fare never changes and nothing sells out, so you can decide over breakfast. That flexibility, plus a well-placed Milan base, is the whole trick.