I'm going to Italy and Switzerland for the first time in October. We plan on renting a car in Zurich and returning it when we get to Rome (I guess we'll just park it while we're in Venice since we plan to stay outside the city?)

Does this itinerary sound too packed? If so, what would you suggest we cut out of the trip?

Day 1 Arrive in Zurich, explore town and spend the night there
Day 2 Drive south, visit Lucerne and other small Swiss villages in the Alps
Day 3 Drive thru Torino towards Genova, visit Lake Como along the way
Day 4 Explore Genova and move down the southern Italian Rivera coast towards Portofino
Day 5 Explore Tuscany, Florence
Day 6 Explore Tuscany - Siena, San Gimignano, Cortona
Day 7 Visit Perugia/Umbria on way to Rome
Day 8 Rome
Day 9 Rome
Day 10 Rome
Day 11 Fly home

Doable or advisable?

Way too packed imho. An awful lot of driving will leave you little time to "explore" any of those places along the way. It looks like 7 or 8 different hotels in 11 days? Crazy imho.

Have you checked out the prices for dropping the car in a different country...my understanding is that is very expensive!

I also think you are covering WAY too much ground, you will just be driving through everything and not seeing anything. With 10 days I would do maybe one location in Switzerland and 1 in Italy!

Yes, the drop-off fees are expensive, but less expensive than the cost of 4 people to travel via train the whole trip (there will be 4 of us).

Just trying to figure out what stops in the itenerary I should cut to make the trip worth-while.

Thanks

I guess it depends on what your objectives are. I think you are underestimating travel times etc. But it could be that you really like driving trips and only want to do drive bys of places.

In Tuscany for example, towns basically shut down from 12-2/3pm and therefore make it difficult to visit more than 1-2 in a day. Which means Day 6 is not doable unless you just drive by. And to drive to Florence and explore it in 1 day is just unrealistic.

It would be better to base yourself in one place and do day trips, but you need to decide which area you want to focus on.

Why fly into Zurich if only to leave after 1.5 days?

From where we live, the cost of flying into Zurich was almost $1k less than the cost of flying into any of the airports in Italy, plus 2 members of our group would really like to see the Alps (which I'm fine with).

The reason for renting a car is to not only have the freedom to go wherever, whenever, but it is also more cost effective than the train for 4 people (unless there are great deals that I am unaware of).

Good to know that about Tuscany though. In your opinion, what are the top 3 "must-see" destinations from the ones listed above? Rome is a definite for us.

Thanks again in advance.

OK, so you are flying in to Zurich, but Italy is your main event?

I would maybe drive through the alps to somewhere in N. Italy (experts on that area...?) spend two nights doing that, then head to Tuscany, picking one location for 4 nights, maybe Siena...depends on what towns you want to see (florence one day, then 2-3 other towns on the other days, and then drop the car in say Orvieto and take the (cheap) train to Rome for your final 4 nights.

Hope this helps!

one more time....
LESS IS MORE.

Oh and trains in Italy are very affordable!

No - it's not even close to doable.

And yuo need to consult a god map and some guide books.

Lucerne is NOT a small swiss village - it's a large town - and it's not in the Alps - but in a valley beween mountian groups.

There is no way you can see anything on the schedule you have. In 10 day syou shuojld see 3 places - max. And even that is pushing it.

If you must land in Zurich and see Rome - here's how. Pick up a car at Zurich airport and drive straight to Lucern. Use this as a base to explore some lakes, small towns and ascend a couple of mountains. Drive to Florence. See Florence and use this as a base to see 2 Tuscan towns on one day. See a third town on the day you drive to Rome. Drop the car in Rome and spend 3 days.

So Zurich and Rome are fixed as your starting and ending point, and you have 10 nights in hotels along the way?

That gives you time to see the Alps OR Tuscany but not both imho, unless all you care about is making quick photo stops. Which one is more important to you?

I would choose a maximum of 4 hotels if you have 10 nights total, and 3 would be better (3/3/4 in Rome). You have to decide if your priority is seeing the Swiss Alps or Italy.

Way too packed. You may as well take a cheap bus tour. You could fly into Milan, and go to the lake district from there, and back that evening. Trenoitalia is very cheap to get around in Italy, and you would spend less time driving. You could spend two days in Florence, and two in Assisi, and from there go on to Rome, where you would need at least three days. There are bus tours out of Rome, That include entrance fees, such as combined, Hadrian's Villa and Tivoli, about 40 Euros each, but you would not waste a lot of time trying to figure out where you are going, or what you are doing. All of Rome can be done on foot, by bus or underground, and with 4 people, you can hire a taxi for 12 euros to get you across town if you are tired. From Rome, you can fly home. (I assume you live in US.) Try US Airways, search by low fare finder once on site. I have always found tickets from 5-800.00 dollars round trip to Rome. You will never see Italy, if you take your itineray. After all, you will want to go back, once you have a taste of it.

We've already established early in the posts that the original itenerary is not doable...but thanks to all of those who gave me the great advice! Very helpful.

You really need to look at a good map and also run routings on Goggle Maps. I have planned 240 trips like this for people like you and this is the best you can do in the 10 days you have---5 destinations---2 nite each. That is VERY hurried but your only realistic option:

Arrive--train to Luzern from station---2 nites
Train to Lugano--get car---to Menaggio on Lake Como
Drive to coast via Genoa--stay in Levanto---2
Drive to Tuscany base---near Siena---2
Drop car in Orvieto--train into Rome--last 2 nites

Do not be hard headed--you are getting sage advice from all.