2 weeks in Europe Itinary Help

We lived in Stuttgart for about 9 months, then moved to Augsburg. The Mercedes Factory visit is nice.

Porsche is on the other side of the city. Also, there is a great auto museum in the city with the oldest car in the World.

Consider taking the Romantic Road in Southern Germany. Rothenberg on the Tauber is a medieval walled city and a must see. Take the road down to the end at Garmisch, Germany. You may wish to visit Munich, then head down to Berchtesgaden and Salzburg, Austria then ending in Vienna. Another option from Garmisch is to head over to Innsbruck, Austria, then down to northern Italy.

https://www.viator.com/Romantic-Road/d21519-ttd?pref=204#%7B%22listSpec%22%3A%7B%22layout%22%3A%22grid%22%7D%2C%22filterSpec%22%3A%7B%22selections%22%3A%5B%5D%2C%22availabilityRange%22%3A%7B%22from%22%3A%22%22%2C%22to%22%3A%22%22%7D%7D%2C%22currency%22%3A%22USD%22%2C%22destinationId%22%3A%2221519%22%7D
http://www.romanticroadgermany.com/general/travel.php

Your key choice is how your travel between your chosen sights. Car rental works well for the Romantic Road, although you can find a tour if you like. If you limit yourself to large cities, then taking the train may work for you, except you have a lot of tickets to purchase.

Use ViaMichelin to get estimated driving times between places you are considering for your overnight stays. Don't forget that the estimates do not include any stops. Folks who've driven in Europe (I haven't) say that you need to pad the times a bit.

I generally like long hotel stays and daytrips in preference to relocating frequently, but it sounds like you're going to be seeing a lot of mountains, and you may find driving times are longer than expected.

By "northern Italy" do you mean Venice, the lakes, the Dolomites, or smaller cities like Verona-Padua-Vicenza?

We were thinking possibly base out of Milan and day trip to the Italian lakes and cinque terre. We have been to Venice in the past and loved it.

If you're going to have a car, I think you'd probably do better to stay outside Milan to avoid having to navigate through the urban area twice for each daytrip. In addition, as a major business city, Milan's hotels are probably rather pricey. Perhaps someone else has a specific suggestion for a good base city in that area? The hill-top town of Bergamo is very worth a visit, but I don't think it's well-positioned for visiting a bunch of lake towns.

The Cinque Terre area is at least 3 hours from Milan by car or train, so I don't think it would be a practical day-trip.

I believe others have mentioned one or two car-related sights in northern Italy that might be of interest to your group, but I don't remember what or where they are.

Milan has some reasonably priced hotels, but I believe they're not as comfortable and good a value as in other parts of Italy. Milan traffic can definitely be an issue, even if you're just trying to skirt the city on the highway.

To visit Lake Como and the Cinque Terre, we prefer to spend 2 nights at each one, for reasons including:

In order to have a full day of sightseeing with no deadlines

Both regions are nice places to get an early start either hiking (for cooler temps) or for connections by boat, which don't run past 6 p.m. in the Cinque Terre (but trains do). Service tends to take a break around lunch time.

Both, but especially Cinque Terre, are less crowded in the evening when the day-trippers have cleared out.

Here is something you could do to include what you want. It has 16 nights, 1 arrival day, 3 travel days, 1 departure day. It includes London.

1 Night Arrive day London,
4 Nights, London,

1 Travel Day, Fly Easyjet from London Heathrow to Stuttgart for roughly $57, a hour and a half flight, Night in Stuttgart
2 Nights, Stuttgart,
1 Travel Day, Train to Murren, Switzerland, about 6 hours, Night in Murren
3 Nights, Murren,
1 Travel Day, Train to Milan, Night in Milan
2 Nights, Milan
1 Departure Day

For a group of 6 will require a van rental, which is more expensive than a car. Be sure to look parking, fuel, and tolls when figuring out rental cars. As others have mentioned dropping off in another country is an expensive add on so be sure to look, but with six passengers if you take the train, which i prefer, Look at rates 90 or 120 days out for the best prices. For flights, the cheaper ones charge for EVERYTHING including carry ons so look it up.

If you want a base in northern Italy for day trips, fly in/out of Florence or Bologna airports and stay in Bologna. You won't need a car, you can day trip by train to Ravenna (well-preserved 5th-6th c. churches with gorgeous mosaics), Ferrara, Padua, and others. There's also a car museum but I don't remember which car or which town.

If you're wanting to stay that far north in Italy (close to Austria) and are looking for outdoor activities I would suggest Ortisei in the Dolomites. Lots of hiking and a great little town.

Ortisei is a good suggestion, and the Iceman resides in a museum in the valley city of Bolzano, which also has a very attractive historic district. One tip: If you stay down in the valley during the summer, you may need air conditioning, and you won't find it in all the moderately priced hotels, because extended hot spells are not thought to occur frequently in that area.