My husband and I are planning a trip to Italy for 10 days in May. We have never been to Europe. If we wanted to spend 4 days in a different country before going home, which country near Italy would be a good choice(except for France)?

If you end up in Northern Italy, Switzerland makes sense. We rode the train--actually 3 trains from Lake Como to Andermatt in the Alps...stayed there a few days and then on to Zurich.

www.hereinfranklin.wordpress.com

Why do you want another country? It takes at least 6 weeks to see Italy.

I'm with Bob on this- stay in Italy. There is so much to see and experience. With 10 days, you will be barely scratching the surface.

The recommendations will be all over the map if you don't clarify your objectives.

Perhaps you should look at a map. There are a few countries near Italy: France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, and Croatia on the European side.

If you have a compelling reason to add another country, buy all means do it.

Do you mean 14 days total -- 10 in Italy and 4 somewhere else -- then use all of the 14 days in Italy. It is a very large country.

Where are you planning to visit in Italy and for how long in each place? Then we can give advice about where else you might go, or where you might need to add some more time.

Switzerland (but only if you mean 14 days total, if you only have 10 stay in Italy the entire time, that's barely enough to get started!)

I'd choose France first, for some decent food, then Switzerland for incredible scenery.. Since you don't want to do France( and I can never concieve of a reason that eliminating France makes sense, LOL ) I would choose to do Switzerland,, visit Wengen, its gorgeous.