I will be working in Italy for the summer and will be joined by my husband for 10 days in August. We would like to travel from Rome to Zurich through the Alps and visit the Italian lakes also. We would like to travel by train if possible. How would you plan this trip?

Thank you!

Does your husband want to spend any time in Rome?

If not, I suggest he fly to Milan, and the two of you meet on Lago Maggiore. He can take a bus from Malpensa to Stresa, and you can take a train up to meet him there.

From there you can take a train into the Alps, unless you want to go to Zurich.

Once I came down from the Alps to Locarno and took a bus from there to Menaggio on Lago di Como. I ferried from there to stay in Varenna for several nights, and then I took a train from Varenna to the mediterranean, but it goes back through Milan, so you could part there. However, I suspect there is a simpler way to do this than the train trip I took, although it take me through some scenic parts of Switzerland.

I will point out that the Bernina Express -- which I've never taken -- might also be a great way to get you into the Alps or out of them from northern Italy.

On that trip I spent 2 days on Lago Maggiore, 5 in Switzerland and 3 on Lago di Como.

epgalloway, I'm doing a trip from Zurich to Milan next month. Here are some websites to look at for Swiss train schedules; www.sbb.ch and www.rhb.ch. I will be buying a Swiss Pass, which is valid on Swiss trains only.

For Italian trains, look at Trenitalia's website, http://www.ferroviedellostato.it/. You can get good discounts with Trentitalia if you book in advance.

How would you plan this trip? I'd start with a good guide book, read what is [goegraphically] between Rome and Zurich, deceide where you'd like to go and then deceide how to spend your 10 days travelling around.

PS, I should add that from Stresa, I traveled in a single day directly to Murren via Domodossla and Spiez/Interlaken. I left Stresa at 9 in the morning and was in Murren well before dinner.

Traveling back from Spiez, I took a train around 10am via lake Brienz and Lake Lucerne. I was in Locarno around 3pm and in Varenna before sunset. This was in September.

I think it's possible that one of the funiculars I took to get to Murren no longer operates. If I had to do it all over again, I would stay in Spiez the whole time, only because I preferred to Murren and what I saw of Interlaken.

Thank you for your helpful information! I have been having trouble conceptualizing the time needed to travel from Italy to Switzerland and your insights have been very useful.