Travel Itinerary Advice - Italy to Switzerland
 

Travel Itinerary Advice - Italy to Switzerland

At the moment plan is as follows
Amalfi Coast 4 nights
Rome 2 nights
Cinque Terra 2 nights
Florence 5 nights including day trips to Pisa and San Marino
Venice 1 Night
Dolomites (Corrina d’Ampezzo) 3 nights
Dolomites (Ortisei) 2 Nights
Germany (Neushwanstein) 1 Night
Leichtenstein (Vaduz) 1 night
Swiss (Limmernse) 1 night
Interlaken 4 nights (Lauterbrunnen + Grindelwald)
Zermatt 3 nights
Lake Como 2 nights
Milan 2 nights

will be travelling by train/bus until Venice, then pick up a car for the rest of the trip. Is this itinerary doable?
is there anything I should be aware of Road-tripping across multiple borders?
I have additional days to use if needed.
Is there anywhere I should consider adding in between?

thanks!

You'll want to check with your rental car agency about any restrictions taking the car out of the country, as well as potential drop off fees. You will need a vignette for certain roads in Switzerland, but you don't need car there - you can get everywhere by public transportation - and Zermatt is car free, so you'd need to pay to park the car in Täsch. Likewise, the villages of Wengen and Murren are car free, so if going above Lauterbrunnen, you'd need to pay to leave your car in Lauterbrunnen. In 30 years of visiting Switzerland, we've not ever driven there, but I know that parking fees are high, parking spaces are limited, and you might need to book a parking space in Täsch and Lauterbrunnen.

https://www.myswissalps.com/motorwayvignette

Your itinerary is very ambitious - we'll be spending the same number of nights on our upcoming trip to Switzerland and northern Italy and we have a separate trip to visit the Dolomites in December.

Keep in mind that two nights is only one full day, and you lose precious holiday time every time you move accommodation

What time of year is the trip?

you'll need each-country's road pass Austria being absolutely vital (but not clear if you are entering). Probably best to have IDL as well

Why are you going to Leichtenstein, there is nothing there?

I would try and eliminate some of the 1 nighters and add to other places. Its a lot of logistics and tie to get to a town spend the night and then leave the next day.

With all those 1-nighters and 2-nighters, you're going to spend most of your time traveling between places with little time in those places. With 1 night, you'll get 1/2 day or less to see anything, in some cases definitely less than 1/2 day due to the driving time.

It takes 5 hours to bet from Florence to San Marino via public transportation. By car it will take 2.5 hours.

I think that you need to simplify your trip and reduce the number of stops and then spend more nights in others.

Some comments/ observations:
1. Increase the time in Rome to 3 or 4 nights.
2. From Rome you should take the fast train to Florence
3. I would drop the Cinque Terre and San Marino unless they are a priority.
4. Take the fast train from Florence to Venice.
5. stay 3 nights in Venice.
6. Regarding the rest of the trip, can you say why you are planning to visit Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It would be much better and easier to spend more time on Lake Como and Milan, plus you would not have to hire a car.

https://www.austria.info/en/service-...y-car/vignette

vignette, I forgot the word

Thank you for the response. Might be worth just renting a car for dolomites, then finidng my way over to switzerland and use the train. Im heading over from Australia, so im definitely trying to cram in a lot as i don't know when ill be able to return in the future.
I agree, the drive from Dolomites to Neushwanstein alone is 3.5 hours, for one night, then another 2 hour drive to get to Switzerland. Ill think ill alter my itinerary a bit. Thanks for the advice

I had appenzell area in my plan which is only a 40 min drive from Leichtenstein, so i thought it would be worth a day to visit to hike and visit the castles.

Thank you. I did a similar road trip in the US 5 years ago with a lot of 1 nighter, but that was far easier when there are free camping areas so you can turn up whenever. Don't want to overcomplicate this trip with hotel check in/check out times. thank you!

Yeah, probbaly should've added more context. We have friends in Florence that have a car, so the day trip to San Marino would be with them. Although a 5 hour return drive would still be a long day.

I live fairly near San Marino, and I can assure you there's nothing there that's worth a five-hour round trip.

I suggest choosing either Ortisei or Cortina d'Ampezzo so you can spend a bit more time in one place.

both San Marino and LIechtenstein have great stamps and the opportunity to buy them and visit something akin to a museum of them

You've had some advice about the northern part of your route. I'll stick with the southern part, which I know pretty well.

It takes five hours or more to get to the Cinque Terre from Rome, with at least two changes of train. Then it takes around three hours, again with two or more changes of train, to get from there to Florence. It hardly seems worth it for two nights, and when you get there, it's often absolutely heaving with tourists.

(I'll take this occasion to say that "Cinque Terre" means "five lands", meaning the five towns. Everyone seems to think it's "Terra", but "Terra" is singular, so "Terre" is correct, being plural.)

The trip from Zermatt to Lake Como is another long haul by public transportation, with numerous changes of train. It would be quicker, but still at least five hours, to drive, but that would involve crossing the border. Maybe you could drop the car in Lugano, which is still in (Italian-speaking) Switzerland, and proceed by train from there. There are direct trains from Lugano to Milan, and from there you can get to Lake Como fairly easily. (I don't know where you plan to stay.)

If you plan to do much train and bus travel, be sure to keep your luggage to a comfortable minimum.

Just buy them on the internet.

I still haven't seen what time of year this will be.

Poppi might be a good mid-point coffee stop:

<< Might be worth just renting a car for dolomites,
then finding my way over to Switzerland and use the train. >>

It is prohibitively expensive to return a rental car in a
country different from the country where you rented the car.
In this case you are picking up your car in Venice, Italy
so you must return it in Italy.

So you might do this:

Rent car in Venice and drive to Cortina d’ Ampezzo for 3 nights.
Drive to Ortisei for 2 nights
Drive to Bolzano (1 hr.), return your car, and take a train Bolzano to Innsbruck (2 hrs.). Spend the night in Innsbruck.
Train Innsbruck to Interlaken Ost (5hr 41min). Mountain train Interlaken to Grindelwald (40min),
If you still wanted to see Neuschwanstein there are possibilities from Innsbruck. You could stay a second day/night in
Innsbruck. You could rent a car for the day and drive to/from Neuschwanstein (1-1/2 hrs. each way). If you stayed 3 nights in Innsbruck
you could see more castles, villages, and mountains.

Venice 1-2 nights
Dolomites (Cortina d’ Ampezzo) 3 nights
Dolomites (Ortisi) 2 nights
Innsbruck 1 night
Grindelwald 5 nights

I just checked Google Maps, which indicates that the trip from Florence to San Marino takes 3 hours and 15 minutes by the fastest route. Poppi is right on the route. I've never been there, but it looks like a nice little town.

I live in that general area and I can highly recommend a slightly longer route, passing through Arezzo, Pennabilli, and San Leo. This would add half an hour to your drive, and any of the three places would merit a stopover of a few hours.

Arezzo is a small Tuscan city. If you like Renaissance art, the Church of San Francesco in Arezzo has a wonderful fresco cycle by Piero della Francesca, called the Legend of the True Cross. This artist was from the nearby town of San Sepolcro, and there are other masterpieces of his there. On the first Sunday of every month, including the Saturday before, there is a good open-air antique market in Arezzo.

Pennabilli is an amazing little town, in a very scenic area. It's really two towns, Penna and Billi, on two adjacent hills, looking at each other across a valley. You could easily spend a day there, as we once did. There's an itinerary called Luoghi dell'Anima (places of the soul), a sort of widespread outdoor museum. It includes the Orto della Frutta Dimenticata (garden of forgotten fruit) which has trees and plants of unusual varieties of fruit, including some you've never heard of, a jasmine planted by the Dalai Lama, and various sculptures, and a Tibetan bell.There's also a very interesting museum of calculation and calculating machines. It sounds a bit nerdy, and my husband and I are indeed a bit nerdy, but, believe me, it's fascinating.

San Leo is very near San Marino, and, like San Marino, it's located on a very steep hill. Actually, I much prefer it to San Marino. It's on a very steep hill, with a fortress on top. The visit to the fortress is quite interesting; there's an old prison with a display of torture instruments, if that floats your boat. There's a magnificent view of the fortress as you approach it from the west (I think).

You could really spend an enjoyable two days on this trip, but even if you just do it as a day trip, you could stop in one or two of these places.


--Inviato da Libero Mail

There is absolutely nothing to see or to do in Liechtenstein and at Limmernsee.
If yoou like a Disneyland castle and long queues, go to Neuschwanstein. But be aware that this castle was built in the 19th century (in a time where castles were of no military utility) and could never have been defended. If you wnat to see a real European castle (fortress), chose a medieval one; there are plenty of them along your itinerary.
There are comfortable direct buses from Venice to Cortina d'Ampezzo. A car may make sense for the trip from there via Falzarego Pass - Alta Badia to Ortisei, however.
Public transport in South Tyrol and Switzerland (from Toblach/Dobbiaco up to Lake Geneva) is excellent. Trains or buses run every 30 to 60 minutes. No seat reservation needed.

Must you fly back from MXP?
If not, you could drive from Ortisei via Bolzano (Oetzi museum) - Tyrol castle - Stelvio (highest Pass road of Europe) - Mustair monastery (medieval Unesco site) - Upper Engadine (many cableways to glaciers, like Diavolezza) - Lake Como - Lake Lugano - Bellinzona castles (Unesco site) - Locarno to Stresa, Pallanza or Domodossola, drop off your car and go on by train to Brig castle - Zermatt - Interlaken/Grindelwald and fly byack from Zurich.
Otherwise drive from Bellinzona to Giornico churches - Nufenen Pass - Grimsel Pass - Interlaken/Grindelwald - Kandersteg - Loetschberg railway car shuttle - Loetschental Valley - Zermatt (Taesch parking) - Brig castle - Simplon Pass - MXP.