Please provide more info on your itinerary. Where will you be in Switzerland? Will you go from that location directly to Venice or is the lake stop in between that place and Venice?

How are you traveling? Train?

If you end your two nights to the end of your trip a suggestion could be to do one night Como or mid-lake and one night Lugano.

Why?

You could check in your luggage at the station in Lugano the night before you leave so that on your day of departure you only have to travel with your hand baggage.

If you stay mid-lake there is a Swiss Postal bus which stops at Menaggio on the way to Lugano.

You can also go by rail directly TO Lugano from Zurich or Geneva and continue on from there through Milan to Venice.

Of course, if you'd much rather take a more scenic route from Zurich you could travel through Chr and over the Bernina Pass to Tirano and then change there for Varenna which is med-lake Como

This is the start of the trip, we are actually leaving from Lausanne sw, We were told to fly into Geneva or Zurich and then we will be pickup by family (one night for jet lag) ,We will then leave from the best point around the Geneva/Lausanne area. .We have 2 nights to explore before 2 nights in venice,4 in Tuscany,3 in Sorrento and 3 more in Rome, leave Rome for the usa .Any info on any area would be great.
Thanks for the replies

IMO the scenery is better on Lake Como, especially if you stay in the mid-lake area (Varenna, Bellagio).

But 2 nights is only one day on the lake, and 2 nights in Venice is only one day there. Not enough time in Venice IMO. I would consider taking a super-early train from Lausanne to either Lugano or Varenna and spending just one afternoon/evening/night there before moving on to Venice.

FYI, there is a daily direct train from Lausanne to Venice that takes about 6.5 hours. The combination of trains needed to stop at either Lugano or Varenna would take 9-10 hours total.

thanks for the info, we will probably just add a extra day to Rome and Sorrento ,anyone recommend hotels/villas around Sorrento?

What's your budget?

200.00 to 250.00 per night
thanks

Dollars or euros?

4 nights at about 200.00 euros is our starting budget ,We not sure what this will get us in Sorrento. We were going to Greece for 4 nights,2 Athens and 2 Santorini .We decided to spend all the time in Italy,
Thanks for the info

200 euros per night will get you plenty in Sorrento.

You should use booking.com and venere.com. You can use the search feature to put in your travel dates, your budget, and check off what amenities you might want like wi-fi or air con, etc -- and then the website will not only show you the available hotels with tons of pictures, but it will also provide up-to-date user reviews.

You know that old phrase about giving a hungry person a meal or teaching them how to fish? You can really simplify your travel needs by using these websites to book hotels. (I don't work for them, but I've learned that message board advice is usually from years-ago vacations and people don't always care about having the amenities that I do. I'd rather read lots of reviews and see pictures).