DK Travel : Milan and the Lakes

Milan is Italy’s economic powerhouse, a bustling city of finance and industry, media empires and fashion houses, backed up by an impressive cultural heritage of important art galleries and ancient churches. Yet a 40-minute train ride takes you to the azure pools of “the lakes”, lined with fishing villages, villas and laid-back resorts.

Antonio Stradivari (1644–1737)

The greatest violin-maker who ever lived learned his craft in the city of Cremona.
Arco Castle

The town of Arco, set back from Lake Garda, is amazing, one of Italy's secrets. It is steeped in History with beautiful buildings and lovely little shops down enchanting alleyways.

The Botanical Gardens is an absolute padarise and free to enter while further up the hill the ruined castle gives tremendous views down to Riva Del Garda and the lake.

The bus fare into Riva is only a euro and, if you wish, there are coach excursions into wine country, The Dolomites, Verona, Milan and Venice.
Arco della Pace

Luigi Cagnola built this magnificent triumphal arch in 1807 for Napoleon to pass through when visiting Milan. It didn’t get finished quite in time and was inaugurated instead by a bemused Habsburg emperor.
Ariosto Hotel

Luxurious amenities and refined service without a high price tag. Rooms either overlook the private garden or open on to the Liberty-style façades of this residential street, and all come with lovely wood furnishings, high-speed internet connections, and VCR. Free bikes are provided for guests.
Ariston

A novel approach to Italian inn-keeping: an eco-hotel. The electrical devices are engineered for low power consumption; the showers conserve water; the tap water and even the air are purified; the breakfast spread is organic. Naturally, the desk rents out bicycles.
Armani

Italy’s top fashion guru is the master of smart clothes that, for a price tag with far too many zeroes, can help anyone look like a model.
Armani Factory Store, Vertemate

Well worth a visit, especially for the massive discounts (30–50%) on men’s and women’s clothing.
Arona

This sprawling modern town was once a stronghold of the Borromeo family, but its fortress was razed by Napoleon. The only lasting monument to the great family is a disconcertingly enormous 17th-century bronze statue of San Carlo Borromeo. Clamber up a ladder-like stair to the head of the 23-m (75-ft) colossus to peek out through his pupils at the 17th-century church below. The road leading to this shrine was meant to be lined with 15 devotional chapels, but only two were finished.
Art and Antiques

Milan’s art dealers offer a rich collection of lesser-known Byzantine and Baroque works and a plethora of 19th-century oils and other relatively affordable works of art. You’ll find an embarrassment of 18th-century Venetian chairs, country-style hardwood dressers and Empire-style clocks cluttering the antichità shops.
Ascona

Locarno’s neighbouring town on the Swiss end of the lake has been a favourite haunt of such cultural giants as Kandinsky, Freud and Thomas Mann. It has a split personality: there’s a Harley rally and Jazz festival in July, and a Rolls Royce gathering and classical music concerts in September. The streets are lined with topend boutiques and sights such as the 16th-century church Santi Pietro e Paolo. Up on the mountainside is Monte Verità. From the late 1800s to the 1940s this was a utopian community of “air-light” wooden structures that housed artists, vegetarians and nudists.

Jump to top

Hotel price categories

For a standard, double room per night (with breakfast if included), taxes and extra charges.
- under €110
- €110-€160
- €160-€210
- €210-€270
- over €270