lugrubious

Seeking wisdom on this one. Shoot holes in it.

Key Details:

• Two couples, 40yo-ish
• Traveling from US
• 12 days in country
• Last week Sept through first week Oct, 2024
• First timers to most of the destinations

Tentative Itinerary (days 1-10):

1. Arrive in Zurich mid-morning. Spend the night to recover. (Option: should we recover in Lucerne instead?)
2. Take train to Bernese Oberland, stay at Hotel Alpina in Murren as a home base for a few days, explore.
3. Murren. Staubbach Falls, Trummelbach Falls, wander around. North Face Trail? Priority: cows.
4. Murren. Jungfraujoch / Eiger / Panorama Trails if weather permits.
5. Murren. Possibly a day trip to Bern (Bern has unique interest for us).
6. Take train to Zurich (3:30hrs), fly to Florence (1:30hrs). (Option: Rome instead of Florence?)
7. Florence.
8. Pisa/Siena/San Gimignano as desired. (Florence/Tuscany region being the idea)
9. Train to Cinque Terre region to end the trip. Stay in Manarola or Vernazza.
10. Cinque Terre. Hike, eat, chill out.
11. Cinque Terre. Continue to wind down.
12. Fly home out of Florence.

Questions:

• Doable or too much?
• Anything we'd really regret not doing/seeing instead?
• Amazing places you loved staying/dining/seeing?
• Is Cinque Terre going to be bearable by that time period (in terms of tourists - I know the weather can be a dice roll in Sep/Oct)
• Whatever comes to mind, go for it.

I realize the general thought is to do Switzerland and Northern Italy together for obvious reasons, but with this trip, the Lauterbrunnen region and the warmer Cinque Terre vibe both are attractive to us (in theory anyway).

Jean

With 10/11 days, I'd explore Switzerland or I'd explore northern Italy (nothing you mention is in southern Italy). I wouldn't try to do both, mostly because of the long transfer between countries.

Your calculation of the journey time from Murren to Florence doesn't seem to include the pre-flight security/check-in time at the Zurich airport or the time it takes to get from the Florence airport to the city center. And I think you're assuming the arrival time of the train and the departure time of the flight will line up without lost time. I wouldn't be surprised if you don't "lose" another hour or two. One day of your 11 eaten up.

Not enough time in Florence IMO, but you've given no indication of your interests... so, who knows. Maybe you don't "need" to spend any time there at all. Rome (for one day?) would make no sense if combined with the Cinque Terre. It's a 6-hour train ride between Rome and Vernazza.

Unless you can fly out of Florence in the evening, you're taking the chance of missing your departing flight if you start that day in the Cinque Terre.

SusanP

Welcome to Fodors.
You do realize that there is no Southern Italy in this itinerary? Cinque Terre is in the northwestern part of the country and Florence is central but more north than south.

I can't help with the Switzerland portion of the trip and don't know the logistics of getting to the Cinque Terre from Murren (possibly very time-consuming), but if you're flying out of Florence, it would be better to go to Cinque Terre first and leave all your Florence time for the end. This saves time, backtracking and a hotel change, and you would need to be back in Florence the night before your flight. Plus, only one day Florence is very little time for all the treasures there. (And I don't know about the weather in Cinque Terre at that time of year.)

You're covering a lot of distance for only ten days. While I admit that Italy is my favorite place, I would leave Switzerland for another trip.

SusanP

I see that Jean and I were typing at the same time. 😁

Traveler_Nick

My rule of thumb is if the weather goes against you can you find things to do? I'd personally avoid allocating that much time to CT in early October. If the weather is bad what are you going to do?

Other thing is you need or should be in Florence the night before your flight home. Stuff happens. If you're stuck because of a strike or a problem on the rail line you will miss your flight.

BTW day 8 covers multiple provinces. I'm assuming you're picking one but those are all better options than risking the weather.

neckervd

As above: the transfer from Muerren to Florence will take almost a full day:
Muerren dp 11.28 - Zurich airport ar 14.51, dp 17.05 - Florence airport ar 18.15 - Florence hotel check in around 19.30.
A train ride in the same time frame would take 6 1/2 hrs: Muerren dp 12.28 - Florence ar 19.04

Once at Manarola, I wouldn't go back to Florence airport (3 3/4 hrs by trainand tram), but to Milan Malpensa airport (5 hr by train) or to Rome Fiumicino airport (5 1/2 hrs by train) from where you would most probably have more and more direct flights home.

lugrubious

LOL I meant *Southern* Northern Italy in the title. IE, not Como/Milan/Dolomites etc. Whoops.

neckervd

So, you mean the Southwestern part of Northern italy and the Northwestern par of Central italy.
Burt there exists a exact geograhic denomination for that: Toscana and Liguria.

lugrubious

Fine...