Hello! I'm American and my sister wants to have a destination wedding in Tuscany in the fall or early spring. My best friend lives in Hildrizhausen, which isn't far from Stuttgart. I visited her before the pandemic in 2019. I was going to fly into Stuttgart and see her for a few days before going to my sister's wedding in Italy. My parents aged 62 and 70 and 2 children (will be 5 and 8) have never been to Europe and we were going to rent a car for sightseeing italy anyways so i thought we could see Germany and my friend as a two for one trip. It appears to be about a 8 hr drive with multiple routes. I have zero experience renting a car in Europe. I'm assuming I can bring my daughter's carseat booster with me and i have an international phone plan with verizon. my kids already like road trips and we were thinking of breaking it up into two days so we could sight see on the way.
Anything i need to know about driving around Europe that involves crossing borders? i saw on another thread something about a sticker for Switzerland? Are rental cars easily allowed to cross boarders into different countries, do i just flash my passport and international driver's permit? What is this "sticker' thing? any forums or other websites dedicated to road tripping in europe that you recommend?
Is Crossing the alps really that bad? I have done a 5000 mile road trip in the US towing an RV which included driving in the Rockies and it didnt really bother us and we are all very experienced drivers in the US in all our geography. We would be renting a larger sized car to accomodate 5 passengers and luggage.

The length of time you have for your trip and your budget will likely influence the answers you get. My experience with rental cars is that although it is okay to cross borders within the EU, you'll need to notify the rental company and may incur extra charges. There may be a steep extra fee for renting in Germany and dropping off in Italy. Once you nail down the fees, you might have a look at what train travel would cost. We prefer taking the train, especially on longer journeys, since we can take an overnight train and not lose a day to traveling.

This is pre-pandemic info.

There no problem problem crossing borders in the EU. Nobody is going to look at your passport or international DL as you cross borders. I'm not 100% sure about Switzerland. There will most likely be a drop off fee for the car if you pick it up in Germany..

The Swiss sticker is for driving on their autoroutes. You'll need one on the car. When we flew to Geneva, we made sure we that we picked up a car on the Swiss side of this border city so that it would have a sticker already.

If you plan to rely on your credit card company to provide CDW insurance, many will not cover you while in Italy. Check with your CC company. Mine does not. If you initially rent a car in Italy, you must purchase insurance from an outside source (car rental company or broker like AutoEurope). This is an Italy rule - not a car company rule.

If your sister's wedding is in the very early spring - their may be snow in the Alps.

Stu Dudley

oh that is a good idea! i did not consider taking a train from germany to italy. I took the train from Stuttgart to Hildrehausen due to ease of use and i didn't want to rent a car since she has one over there to pick me up at the station. it might be good to just have a local car for each destination.

I don't know about your kids, but mine loved the train and they certainly had more room to roam than in a car. I haven't looked at the rail routing, but if you can get a train from Stuttgart to Florence, you can rent a car in Florence for your sister's wedding and motor all over Tuscany. Returning the car in Florence saves the extra drop off fee and allows you to fly home from Florence or take a train on to Rome or Milan where a car would be a burden.

Love that you are traveling with the whole family. It is not easy, but your little ones will have great memories. It is wonderful that you can do it.

I highly recommend taking a train from Germany to Italy, so much more relaxing for everyone. Depending on the route available, you could still break the trip with a day and night of sightseeing somewhere. It has been too long since I have made that trip for me to make recommendations, but I am sure someone else can.

Now, something super important. I hope your Sister will give serious consideration to the dates of her wedding. There are Spring flowers, but early Spring can be very cool and rainy in Italy, especially in Tuscany. You may need warm clothing, including jackets for outdoor activities. We experienced three days of torrential rain one April and had to cancel plans. Of course, you deal with whatever happens, but it is good to have alternative plans, especially with kids.
Based on that, perhaps rent a house or apartment where you would have some space for the kids to play. A place in the countryside could be fun, but a place in a town would make it easy for parents to go out for coffee or something on their own, shopping, etc, then go back to the apt whenever they want. IMHO, I think Lucca could be a great base, but it depends on the location of the wedding.
We like Fall, as long as it is still warm enough to eat outdoors, which is a big priority for us, but may not be for your Sister. Perhaps we were just lucky, but on our trips in Fall, we have not experienced as much rain.
Late Spring through very early Summer is lovely.

https://www.tripsavvy.com/german-rai...-guide-4135650

The IC trains from Stuttgart to Zürich in Switzerland stop at Böblingen, which is not far away from Hildrizhausen. One leaves Böblingen at 08.50. It arrives at Florence S.M.N. (main station) at 17.04 (5.04 pm). The next one is at 10.50. It arrives at 07.04 pm. You would have to change trains in Zürich and Milan.
You can look this up here https://www.bahn.com/en If you are not used to writing the German umlaut ö enter Boeblingen instead. Enter Firenze which is the Italian name of Florence.