Swiss Alps to Florence
 

Hello Fellow Travelers, My wife and I are planning a month long trip from Muerren to Florence in September. We have never been to Europe and are planning to use the rail for travel. We plan to spend our first week in Muerren and then head slowly to Florence from where we fly back to the states. In between Muerren and Florence as of yet we have no definite plans...which brings me to ask...any ideas? We want to keep things simple. We are experienced travelers- just not in Europe.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Natural stops would be Stresa, Milano, Bologna.

In Stresa, you may do a boat trip to the Borromaic Islands on Lago Maggiore - breathtaking.

In Milano, visit the Duomo (cathedral), Leonardo's Last Supper and other attractions. In Milano, there is a change of trains anyway.

Bologna is a medieval city with the world's oldest university.

So many routes - with lots of time I'd consider going by the Bernina Express to Italy- this can be a neat trip:

Murren to Interlaken - take train to Meiringen - scenic postal bus to Andermatt- take Glacier Express rail route to St Moritz- stay the night.

Take the awesomely scenic Bernina Express over the Bernina Pass and a scene of glaciers and a top of the world look and feel - take it to Tirano, Italy then catch Italian trains to Lake Como - to Varenna-Esino for boats to Bellagio or other places on the lake.

Then meander around Italy via Milan - maybe go over to Verona then Venice - Bologna - Florence.

for lots of info on trains check www.seat61.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com and www.ricksteves.com. In Switzerland a Swiss Pass could be a great thing as it covers travel to Murren in full and Gimmelwald too and of course could be used if going via Bernina Express or traveler1959's route which if not doing the Bernina Route makes perfect sense.

From Tirano, terminus of Bernina Express, you can also take a bus to Edolo then a train to Brescia - if headed to Lake Garda, Verona or Venice this is a cute if slow route thru the mountains to the Verona area without having to go via Milan.

You would need weeks to visit all gems between Muerren and Florence (and months if you would do all on foot along perfectly signmarked hiking trails through the Western Alps and the Ligurian Appennin).

More seriously:
you can spend all your time in the Alps by going
either up to Bernina and may be Tyrol as suggested by Palen
or
to the highest mountains of the Alps in the Swiss Canton of Valais (Zermatt, Saas Fee) and in Aosta Valley (Courmayeur, Cogne, Gressoney).

But you can also spend all your time by travelling between charming medieval towns like Berne, Murten, Gruyeres, Sion, Brig, Aosta, Bellinzona, Locarno, Glurns, Bozen, Trento, Bergamo, Cremona, Mantova, Pavia, Parma, Pistoia......

or you can mix rather big cities like Turin, Milan, Genoa, Bologna with the smaller one's, the 6 most popular North italian lakes, some famous isolated churches and monasteries and some alpine scenery.

May be you will have a look at
http://www.myswitzerland.com/en/home.html
http://www.italia.it/en/home.html

You can also go via Milan and along the Italian coast to the famous Cinque Terre - comfortably but not totally mobbed crowded in September I think - then via Portofino, Pisa and Lucca (fine fine walled city known for its many medieval towers) to Florence.

Hit Genoa - a fine fine old town en route to the Cinque Terre area.

Wow - so many Great Ideas from all of you - thank you so much.

It is a lot to digest and figure. At this point we are leaning towards just day treks out of Muerren for 5-6 days and then train to Stressa (I think the train goes there), then Milan, then Genoa down to Lucca and over to Florence for 4 days. Does this seem workable?

yes of course with that much time - three weeks is a long time so that is a very leisurely trip.

From Lucca you could take a train or bus via Pisa to Siena and do day trips by bus or train from there before going to Florence - 3 weeks is a lot of time for what you previewed but there are other neat towns on the Italian coast - like Santa Margharita Ligure - good base for day tripping into nearby Portofino or boating or walking in.

right next to Lucca is Montecatini Terme, one of Italy's poshest spas - very un-Italian settting -lush campus-like setting and few loud mopeds!

Makes a sweet day trip for something different:

https://www.google.com/search?q=mont...w=1745&bih=868

Lucca is a good base for Pisa's Leaning Tower too - a short train ride from Lucca goes to Pisa's seconday S Rossore station which is a short short stroll from the Leaning Tower compound. Pisa Centrale the next stop and main station is about 1.5 miles or so from that area I'd say so if the Tower is your goal get off at S Rossore from Lucca.