I discovered this journey by accident when I needed to meet up with my husband who was flying into Geneva. I was blown away, and after the pandemic, when travel resumed,
I dragged him along on the same route and he agreed with me. Travelling from Geneva to Milan by train is a holiday in itself. I rank it as one of my favourite European rail journeys.
Why travel by train from Geneva to Milan (and viceversa)
Between Milan and Geneva, your train will take in the lush shores of two of Europe's great lakes, Leman and Maggiore, as well as spectacular alpine scenery in the Val d'Ossola and Valais.
Add to that lake islands, UNESCO Heritage sites, Swiss castles (Sion and Chillon above all), magnificent turn-of-century and baroque lake villas, and delightful towns with sweeping views of the beauty of Italy and Switzerland.
The ideal starting points for this journey are Paris, Lyon, and Munich but if you are based in Brussels or London, it is perfectly feasible from there too.
I have done this trip from London and the views are so exhilarating I wished the journey were even longer!
Isola dei Pescatori, Stresa, © Robin Ulrich/Unsplash
Joining the Geneva to Milan train line from other European cities
Depending on your departure point, you should estimate spending between 5 and 9 hours travelling on days 1 and 4,
When the Trenitalia and SNCF high-speed service resumes in 2025, the journey through the Alps from Paris to Milan will be 7 hours, and from Lyon to Milano will be 5 hours and direct. This will give great options.
From London and Brussels, you can catch a Eurostar to Paris Gare du Nord (and then connect with the high-speed train from Paris Gare de Lyon to Milano).
The lack of time difference means you have slightly more choice if you start your journey in Brussels. You can catch the 6:43am from Bruxelles-Midi, then hop on to the 9.43 from Gare de Lyon and be in Milan at 4:45, just in time for check-in and aperitivo!
If you depart from London, the one-hour time difference means that you will need to catch an early morning Eurostar on the first day, have lunch in Paris and and head to Gare the Lyon for the 14:45 departure to Milan. Alternatively, you can leave the previous evening and sleep in Paris, before catching the 9:43. If you are an early riser, you can even catch the 6:30am from Gare de Lyon. With that option, you can have a late lunch in Milan and time for a proper stroll around Piazza del Duomo or visiting an art gallery.
Until the high-speed service resumes, I recommend travelling via TGV from Paris to Geneva and change there for the SSB (Swiss Railways) direct train to Milan. you will be treated to one of Europe's most spectacular train journeys twice!
If you are based in Munich, none of the above applies to you. You can book yourself on an ÖBB night train to Milan, and then embark on your lakeside journey from there.
Check RailEurope or Trainline for options and bookings.
My itinerary
Day 1 - London to Milan
Last time I took this trip,oute, the high-speed link from Paris to Milan was still working, so on the way out I opted for the 8 am Eurostar and lunch in Paris, and actually walked from Gare du Nord to Gare de Lyon with my hand luggage, stopping at a brasserie in the Bastille area to refill before catching the 14:46. The only downside to catching the 14:46 is that it gets you in Milan quite late, at 22:20, but there are nice hotels and a reasonably safe neighborhood around Piazza Duca d'Aosta, across the road from Centrale. Besides, I do not like rushing in the morning.
Day 2 - From Milan to Lake Maggiore
The next morning the magic begins. Direct Trenord local trains run between Milan and Domodossola, on the Italian-Swiss border. They are very frequent, and literally coast Lake Maggiore, so if you are tired and/or on a rush you can admire the lake without leaving your seat.
In just over one hour you can get to Stresa, the pearl of Lago Maggiore, beloved of Hemingway - where has that man not been? He had been preceded by a string of famous people, from Stendhal to Dickens to Flaubert. Before them, even Napoleon had fallen in love with this part of the world.
There was another reason I wanted to stop in Stresa. The history of its heydays is romantically connected with the golden age of train travel, so it felt like a meaningful stop in my whirlwind train trip from London to Italy and Switzerland. According to the Stresa tourist office website, it was the opening of the Simplon Tunnel between Brig in Switzerland and Domodossola in Italy (the last stop of my Trenord train) that put Stresa firmly on the map. The tunnel's opening marked the launch a transnational London-Paris-Milan train line. Wouldn't it be nice it were resumed? On can hope!
More famous visitors flocked to Stresa through the Simplon - English and French upper classes and in 1918 Hemingway, who after being wounded in WW1 wrote parts of A farewell to Arms in room 106 of the Hotel des Iles Borromees. Hemingway loved the place so much that he returned many times over the years, always staying in the same room - now the Hemingway Suite.
It was late August and hot but bearable. The walk from the train station to the Lungolago is just over ten minutes but we took our time and explored, admiring the elegant turn-of the-century facades and lush gardens of grand art deco hotels and villas. After leaving our luggage at our hotel we stopped for a caffe' freddo (it was too hot for espresso) and a pastry, and made our way to the lake front. The resort architecture is not the only draw of this magnificent little town. Stresa is also the departing point for the Isole Borromee, the three jewel-like little islands in the middle of Lago Maggiore you will inevitably have seen in postcards and photos of the lake.
Given the Islands' popularity I was worried the journey by boat would be quite expensive, and was pleasantly surprised. For 13 euros you can buy a hop-on hop-off ticket to travel from Stresa and back, as well as between the three islands. The price felt fair, especially considering that the journey on the lake is an attraction in itself! There a number of providers, I used Civitatis and was very happy with the service. The boats follow a fixed itinerary, stopping at Isola Madre, then Isola dei Pescatori, and last Isola Bella.
The three islands are incredibly different from each other. Isola Madre and Isola Bella are privately owned, and the combined ticket is 30 euros at the time of writing (check their website for any changes and to book online). Isola dei Pescatori is public.
Isola Madre's lush English-style botanical garden was a welcome respite from the August heat, and truly atmospheric. You will understand why Flaubert fell in love with them. If you visit on a rainy day you may want to linger more in the Renaissance palazzo of the Borromeo dynasty (the local rulers). The family has put on display here furnishings, tapestries, paintings and decor previously scattered around their various historic residences.
I loved the next stop, Isola dei Pescatori, From the aristrocratic grandeur of Isola Madre you are stepped into a charming, quaint village where people still live (although their numbers are dwindling) and work. "Pescatori" means "fishermen," and their traditional fishing boats anchored along the shore. The fruit of their labour now feeds the day trippers who come for lunch at one of the attractive restaurants.
The restaurants fill very quickly, but thanks to our late start/arrival from Milan we have started our island trip later. By the time we got there quite a few people had finished their meal and you could spot some free tables here and there. We chose Trattoria Imbarcadero which has great reviews on Tripadvisor. We were not disappointed. I am not a fan of freshwater fish but my husband wanted to have the risotto di pesce and it was two people minimum, so I took a leap of faith. It was nicer than I expected, and the Piedmontese Arneis wine and Bufala caprese starter were delicious too.
After our meal we visited the village, all cobbled winding streets full of souvenir and food shops, but extremely pretty. It reminded me of CinqueTerre, in that it has a touristy side, but the remotes keeps it charming. Most little restaurants have rooms to rent, and I think it would be a wonderful overnight stay because it is probably much quieter at night when the day trippers have gone. We stepped into the island church, heavily modified over the centuries but originally built ten centuries ago.
Then we headed back to the jetty for our final stop, Isola Bella.
Now, I have a confession to make. When I was a child, someone sent my mother a postcard of Isola Bella, and it has been in my dreams ever since. So forgive me for being biased, but I was blown away. It is a baroque dream, so daring and visionary that I could not help thinking of Gaudi, and it was the brainchild of another member of the Borromeo family, who started it in the 17th century, and was so bold it took four years to complete. Palazzo Borromeo itself is very fascinating, with its art collection, its elegant rooms - they were good enough for Napoleon and Josephine - and its dreamlike Grotte, an apartment made of rooms covered in shells and pebbles to evoke caves.
But nothing, in my view, beats the image that captured my imagination as a child. The Teatro Massimo. Imagine ten terraces, decorated with statues and sculpted motifs of shells, and statues, perfectly integrated in the surrounding Italian gardens,
We considered breaking the bank and having a cocktail in Hemingway's bar at the Grand Hotel but we were pretty exhausted after all the sightseeing and decided to have an early dinner and gelato on the Lungolago. Switzerland awaited.
Day 3 - The great cross-Switzerland ride
The 9.20 Trenitalia Eurocity takes you directly from Stresa to Geneva in about 3 hours, which seemed perfect. We wanted a slightly easier day after all the activity on Lake Maggiore. But this is no ordinary train journey. You feel as if you are watching a montage of postcards. You literally ride between mountains and water the whole time, First, the railway tracks coast Lago Maggiore, then they start following the course of the river Ossola, cutting through a dark Alpine valley. After crossing the Simplon tunnel, you enter Switzerland and the first stop is at Brig. From then on, you follow the course of the Rhone, whose source is a Glacier in the Saint Gotthardt massif!
Soon you'll be riding through vineyards in the incredibly pretty canton of Valais, terraced with vineyards, goldened by the summer light. And in the middle of this impossibly beautiful landscape the train will ride past the village of Sion, with its double hills surmounted by a castle and a church. If only I had had an extra day.
As you process the beauty of Valais, the train, still following the course of the Rhone, reaches the southernmost tip of Lac Leman, and the castle of Montreux rises before your eyes.
And then you are in Lausanne, gracefully descending towards the lake. Stendhal syndrome is normally associated with Florence and the human mind not being able to cope with too much beautiful art, but on this short train journey your mind will struggle to process the mutable enchantment of nature, and of water constantly changing shape and colour before your eyes.
Geneva was a very beautiful city on a late August Saturday afternoon. We had lunch at a simple place by the station, then went to our hotel to drop the luggage and walked along the lake to the Jet d'Eau, then wandered around the Old City, the birthplace of the Reformation, and the area of Saint Pierre Cathedral. But we could not resist the lure of Lac Leman.
We traced out step backs towards the Rhone and followed it to Lac Leman, to have a drink and dinner at Bains du Paquis, a no frills establishment which seems a bit of a Geneva institution, overlooking the lake. It was a perfect way to conclude our whirlwind tour of French-speaking Switzerland!
Day 4 - Closing the loop
The next morning, we caught the TGV from Geneva to Paris (3.17 minutes), had a bite to eat in a patisserie, and then on to Gare du Nord for our connecting train to London, refreshed as if I had been on a much longer holiday. A long weekend through 4 European countries without catching a plane is entirely possible. And what a unique trip it was!
Your return trip won't be very different if you come from Belgium. If your departure station was Lyon, you can enjoy a whole morning exploring Geneva before your train, perhaps heading to the confluence of the Rhone and Arve river at La Jonction (It is on my to do list for next time). And if your journey started in Munich, you are very lucky! On the way back, you can see another lake! If you catch a morning train to Zurich (2 hours and 4 minutes) and book yourself a late afternoon connection from Zurich to Muenchen (the second leg) you can have a wander around the centre of Zurich before heading home!
Add this journey to your bucket list!
I do wonder why the London-Milan via Geneva train journey is not featured more often on 'ultimate destinations' and 'bucket lists.' A ride along Lake Maggiore and Lake Geneva is one of the most beautiful travel experiences not just in Europe but on earth. I know good old Hemingway would agree with me!
If you are looking for more ideas for scenic multi-country train journeys, check out this post.
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