Luxury hotel holidays to the Italian Alps

Highlights of the Italian Alps

Hiking and skiing in the Aoasta Valley; the annual autumn Alba Truffle festival, with more than 40 taking place in various towns and villages in Piemonte. Some Piemonte guesthouses and hotels can also arrange for you to go truffling with a local hound; the baroque piazzas and palaces of Turin, where the Fiat car factory is an interesting visitor attraction in its own right; the Italian Lakes north of Milan, such as Lake Maggiore, Como, and lovely little Orta, which has a Benedictine monastery right in the middle; boat trips on Lake Maggiore to visit the Borromean Islands; the beautiful hill town of Bergamo, with a funicular railway up to Bergamo Alto to visit its stunning 15th century chapel; the mediaeval village of Arca on the upper reaches of the Sarca River Valley; boat tours of Lake Lugano; spectacular views from Monte Mottarone above Stresa on Lake Maggiore, reached by cable car; national parks such as the Stelvio National Park north of Orta and the Parco Nazionale della Val Grande above Verbania on Lake Maggiore; Milan, with its magnificent gothic cathedral, famous La Scala opera house and 19th century Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, perhaps the most elegant shopping arcade in the world; Verona's annual opera festival as well as its sights, including the Romanesque church of San Zeno, the Renaissance Loggia del Consiglio and the Roman Arena.

Travel around the Italian Alps

Trains and buses connect Milan and Verona with the villages and ski resorts to the north, as well as the lakes of Lombardy. As with all trains and buses in Italy, the service is fairly efficient and relatively cheap, and buses in particular are a good way of getting between villages once in the mountains themselves. However, as it often requires several changes to reach smaller, remoter destinations, by far the best way to explore this area is by hire-car, which we include with all our holidays to the Alps.