After three consecutive Transatlantic Cruises, it is time to start planning for a land based trip. Ever since our Honeymoon Trip, we have regretted not being able to visit Cinque Terre on the Italian Riviera; having visited Pisa, only to see the Leaning Tower draped in scaffolding; and having spent too little time in Venice. It had always been our desire to revisit Northern Italy again after that trip, and an itinerary for this trip began to form in my mind last year.
Before making the final choice on our last trip’s itinerary, the transatlantic cruise from Spain to the USA, I had briefly looked at flights in and out of both Milan, Italy, and Zurich, Switzerland in the early planning stages, while we were still trying to determine where we wanted to go for that trip. Both of these cities had frequently schedued flights, and fairly direct connections. In addition, they are both situated fairly close to Cinque Terre. However, being limited on time away from work, and knowing we would not have sufficient time for a trip to Northern Italy, we chose the two week transatlantic trip from Spain.
While formulating a route for this trip, I realized that there was an opportunity to also visit Austria, and for a visit to the Black Forest in Germany, something that was on our list of future places to visit. Looking at a map of Italy, Austria, and Germany, we came up with the following itinerary, basically making a large circle through the area encompassing those destinations.
Depending on flight prices and availability of one stop routes, flights in and out of Milan, Italy, or Zurich, Switzerland will be considered as entry and exit cities for this trip.
The itinerary would consist of the following major cities, but does not include all the places of interest we would visit (Letters Correspond to Designations Shown on Map Below):
- Flight from USA into Milan, Italy (A)
- Drive to Genoa, Italy (B)
- Drive to Pisa, Italy (C)
- Drive to Florence, Italy (D)
- Drive to Bologna, Italy (E)
- Train to Venice, Italy (F)
- Train to Vienna, Austria (G)
- Train to Salzburg, Austria (H)
- Train to Munich, Germany (I)
- Drive to Stuttgart, Germany (J)
- Drive to Strasbourg, France (K)
- Train to Zurich, Switzerland (L)
- Flight from Zurich to USA
- Alternate Departure Point – Milan, Italy (A)
This route makes a circle through the areas we are wanting to visit. Certainly it is an aggressive trip to plan with this many stops, so consideration will be given to shortening the route, possibly eliminating Vienna, making the train trip directly from Venice to Salzburg.
Map of Possible Itinerary for Northern Italy, Austria, Germany and Switzerland
As we look into the specifics of the trip, we will adjust both our expectations, and the routing, to make it realistic. As it is shown now, it may just be too much for one trip. However, we have to start somewhere, and this seemed to be a route that would interest us.
The time frame for this trip to take place is in mid to late September, 2010. Although we would prefer to see the areas in the Spring, that would put the trip too close to the current date to be able to accomplish all of the planning and make it a reality, and to wait until next Spring (2011) would place the trip entirely too far away. As a preliminary guess, 21 days would be the minimum duration, hence the need to build up our vacation time.
Stay posted as we start the planning effort.