We leave in two weeks for Italy and are getting very excited. All the hotels and trains are booked etc. Any suggestions on interesting restaurants or unusual sights to see along our crazy route?

Fly to Milan, overnight on plane

Thu - Milan - see The Last Supper in the morning Fri, train to Venice at noon

Fri/Sat - Venice, pick up car on Sunday and drive Venice to Austria

Sun - Heiligenblut

Mon - Nauders - stopping in Meiders on the way there to go on Sommerrodelbahn Alpine Coaster

Tue - Bellagio, taking Ferry from Varenna

Wed - Monaco (leave car at railway station in Geneva, take train RT to Monaco for overnight)

Thu/Fri/Sat/Sun - Monterosso - cooking school on Friday night

Mon - Montalcino - drive by Pisa to see leaning tower enroute

Tue/Wed - Florence

Thu - Train to Milan 4pm, fly to London 9pm, stay overnight with friends in London and finish flight home Friday afternoon

Great by why Monaco? The tenth best city on the Cote a'Azur or so IMO - why not Nice or Menton - why boring Monaco - maybe for the novelty or family there - long train ride each way - Nice for a night I can see but Monte Carlo - gambles perhaps?

Wow! 2500 km of travel in 10 days. You'll be exhausted. And it will be a blur.

Monaco - because our companion used to live another life - full of big $$ and big yachts and big gambling - and that life if long gone now! He's always wanted to see it and now he will :)

As for staying moving - when we travel to Europe - we want to see and do all we can. We can sleep back at home, or when we use our timeshares where we stay a week at a time every time we go. At some point, we hope to do a house trade in the Nice area with a family friend for a summer - we can relax and do side - trips in this area then.

Actually, thinking about it more, if I didn't come home exhausted from a driving trip - what would be the point? We live in San Diego - when I am ready for a relax vacation, I'll head back down to Rancho La Puerta for a spa week.

Thank you for all the help, i really do appreciate these forums.

I would personally be bored to death in Monterosso for 4 nights. The CT was incredibly disappointing and swarming with tourists when I was in Oct. several years ago. Underwhelming in every way except scenery. We left the same day we got there.

Hi,

Just wondering what is the route from Heiligenblut to Nauders? I ask since neither would be on the route I would take which would be: Venice to the Alta Badia (Dolomites) via Cortina d'Ampezzo, for a night. Then the Gardena Pass, through the Val Gardena to the A22 and around Bozen/Bolzano to Meran/Merano and west through the Vinschgau/Val Vensota for a night. Then driving the Stelvio Pass to Varenna.

Going out of your way for Heiligenblut, the Innsbruck area (Sommerrodelbahn) and Nauders? Are you driving the Grossglockner from Heiligenblut to Nauders? While Heiligenblut is picturesque, if not driving the Grossglockner the next day, I wouldn't bother.

Just some thoughts.

Paul

So you're taking the train to Milan and flying home the same night? I wouldn't advise this. Travel in Italy can be interrupted -- by strikes, breakdowns, traffic jams, weather, and, once in our experience, a suicide on the tracks. Either go to Milan the day before or change your tickets to fly out of Pisa, an easy train ride from Florence.

I would second Miimar that you try and find a flight out of Pisa, (check out low cost Ryan Air and Easyjet) Alternatiavely fly out of Bologna. Both are much closer to Florence than Milan airport. But If flights are already booked, then so be it. I am sure that by now you have everything booked, so I think it is useless giving suggestions regarding the itinerary.

Passing up the mountain to the Stelvio Pass gives you incredibly beautiful mountain scenary of the Dolomites, BUT taking the route from Silandro (or Schlanders as they also call it) area up this mountain road, is a very long drive up a steep long mountain road, so do bear that in mind if it would be raining or snowing or it would be getting late by the time you arrive in that area, if you inend to take that route. It can snow even in August as you reach the high plateau, as was the case in 2005, we were there in September, and the locals told us that it was raining the month before. The scenary is breathtaking of course, as you are seeing the tops of the dolomite mountains all around you from a high altitude,, but the drive might not be for the faint hearted, and not recommended by me for sure in bad weather - the road however, is much easier from the Swiss side of the pass.

Are you leaving car in Geneva, as you mentioned, which is in Swizerland - or Genoa in Italy - which is on the coast of Liguria? I see no point in leaving it in Geneva if you would after be heading to Cinque Terre.

If you do get bored in Monterosso, you might consider doing a trip to Lucca from there, about one hour fifteen minutes drive each way. Alternatively, do a day trip to the Apennine mountains.

Enjoy your trip - you certainly have planned an adventurous holiday!!!

All these criticisms poorly disguised as advice and/or encouragement. Passive aggressiveness is alive and well in the Forums.

OK fletcher - I now get why Monaco - go for it!