Salzburg to Florence in late April
 

40 years ago I attended the U of Vienna Summer School on Wolgangsee and have been dying to go back. My husband has work in Florence. We will fly into Munich on April 27th, stay in or around Salzburg and then drive to Florence. From what I can read, I am wondering what is the best way and maybe the only way to get to Italy at that time of the year. In other words, what pass will get us over the mountains?

I would think the "Brenner Pass" outside of Innsbruck would be the one! <BR> <BR>JOHN

John is right, the Brenner Pass is the best alternative since you will never have to exit the highway until you get to Florence (although there are a number of excellent sites along the way that would be worthwhile stops). Salzburg to Innsbruck to the Brenner Pass to Modena to Bologna to Florence.

I don't think that snow will be an issue at all after April 27. You might want to ask the opinions of Bob (the Navigator) or Ed (and Julie) - - but I think that the route via Udine (direction: Venezia) is every bit as good as (if not better than) going via Innsbruck and Brenner Pass. It IS interesting to drive through the Trentino area south of Brenner Pass, but it is lovely to go south out of Salzburg also. <BR> <BR>Best wishes, <BR> <BR>Rex <BR>

I've tried both ways and both are good routes. However, it seemed that the autostrada north of Udine into Austria had sharper curves and more tunnels than the Brenner route. The last time I went the Brenner route was early May of last year and there were a lot of road repair sites between Bressanone and Trento which required traffic to merge into one lane but that didn't cause much of a delay. On balance, I'd take the Brenner route but the difference between the two isn't that great. The choice should depend on what sites you want to see along the way.