smetz1

In July, my wife and I will be spending two weeks in Italy and Germany. We fly into Venice, and plan on spending at least three days there, most likely with a couple of days in Florence. At the end of the trip, 0n days 10-14, we're meeting my son & his new wife in Munich to tour around Bavaria. For the 4 or 5 day gap between Venice/Florence and Munich, I have some ideas, including:

1. Train from Venice or Florence to the South Tyrol, probably staying in the town of Merano. I've long wanted to go to this area of Italy, and we enjoy hiking quite a bit. Depending on whether we're traveling from Venice or Florence, we could probably make a stop in Verona to see a few sights along the way, without spending the night. Since the trains go into Bolzano, with a regional train then continuing to Merano, we could potentially spend a night in Bolzano before moving on to Merano the next day.

2. Fly from Venice to Berlin. We could then spend 2-3 days in Berlin, then take a train to Prague, for another 2-3 days, finally taking a train to Munich. Both are places that we've never been, and would like to visit.

Which would you pick? We haven't been to any of these places, except for Munich. If we go to South Tyrol, is it worth a one night stopover in Bolzano? Would you suggest something completely different?

I'm giving the edge to South Tyrol, mainly because we much prefer to travel by train. But are we missing out on something really special by avoiding Berlin & Prague just to avoid flying?

flpab

south Tyrol, Bolzano is a nice village. Beautiful mountains.

HappyTrvlr

Dolomites are beautiful and on the way.

PalenQ

I loved Cortina d'Ampezzo a whole lot - have not been to Merano but Cortina, once home to the winter Olympics, is easy to reach buy train and bus - a short bus ride Calaizo- then from there by bus to Dobbiaco, Austria's railway station for trains to Brennero line to Innsbruck and Munich.

Kind of a novel way to go between Venice and Austria - the alps around Cortina are awesome and there is a network of buses to get you around.

HappyTrvlr

We enjoyed Ortisei and you could easily leave Italy via the Brenner Pass.

dfourh

If you're going all the way to Merano, consider going a bit further to Solda (Sulden in German). It's a bit of a hidden secret (Angela Merkel vacations there, and all the locals refuse to let on when she is around - - they keep the press stonewalled) and a base for Reinhold Messner. From Sulden you can take the Seilbahn or lift up into the mountains, and there are a variety of walks with different levels of difficulty (some you hug the mountainside holding to ropes, along narrow paths parts of the way; snow should not be an issue on the hikes in July). Merano is pleasant as a shopping outing from Sulden. German is actually the predominant language in these parts, despite Italian government attempts to re-establish the region as Italian culturally.

Dukey1

Obviously if the scenery and the hiking are the boat floaters then the mountains. I've been to all these places you mention and Bozen and surrounds while fab are never going to supplant the sights and experiences in Berlin and Prague IMO. Both plans would work so what's the most important thing right now?

And yeah, the rail trip up over the Brenner to Munich is fun.

smetz1

Wonderful suggestions, thanks to all, especially for the alternative towns in northern Italy. Dukey, you've put your finger right on it - need to look a little further into both alternatives before making a final decision.