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3 weeks Italy / Germany / and...?

Posted by (Eastern Canada) on

Planning 3 first weeks in September, starting in Venice for 4 nights (3 full days), then I plan on 2 nights in Bologna. The next set date is back in Venice on Sept 21 for early flight out on the 22nd. These stays are already booked, so we have 14 days to wander. I opted out of multi-city flights because the one way fee for a car was over $1200cdn, so decided on a loop.

We are renting a car at the end of the Venice visit, and I have obtained the maps for our GPS. I'm thinking head up through the alps toward Germany, but what can we expect in September? I have seen some indications that September can still be good weather, but then I saw that there was 60cm in early Sept 2017. Is that unusual? Would it be just at the highest passes? Or should we be prepared for bad weather? As a motorcyclist, I would really love to see Stelvio and Aubrail (sp?) passes, but if the weather is bad, would it be likely that the valley roads would still be safe? I'm from Eastern Canada, so I know all about snow and ice and winter, but I'm pretty sure a car rented from Venice wouldn't have studded winter tires! I guess if we had to, we could also just wander around Italy and France.

Next question - I was thinking if we did get past the Alps, we would work our way up along the "romantic road" and over to Stuttgart over 3 - 4 days, then loop back to Salzburg, then maybe Vienna for 3 nights, before hauling back down to Venice area. Is that reasonable? Google maps has it at 2300ish km, which I don't mind, and rough planning shows the longest single drive day at 4 hrs between most stops, except for Vienna - Venice at 7hrs.

There are far too many choices in Europe. I originally had Prague on the list as well, but already dropped that in order to slow the roll a bit to get some light hiking an mountain biking in as we go along.

Regards,
Ricky

Posted by
15777 posts

Friends of mine flew in/out Venice just to rent a car and drive through Slovenia (really just through it) to Croatia.

Posted by
8176 posts

Three weeks and your first six nights are set, that leaves you with 15 days. Have you been to Florence, Rome, Siena, Pisa, Cinque Terre, Luca, Ravenna, Verona, Milan, Orvieto and more. Italy has so much. Not sure why you picked Bologna, its OK, but Florence kicks Bologna.

If you go north of the Alps, and into Austria, you could stop in Innsbruck, then up to Garmish and Fussen to see the castles and Oberamergau then up the Romantic Road to Augsburg, Donauworth, Dinkelsbuel, Rothenburg on the Tauber and Wurzburg.
That run will take you about a week on its own.

Posted by
1717 posts

Hello Ricky. After you will be at Venice, 15 days is enough time for travelling in Germany, and return to Venice. But, traveling long distances in Europe, I would prefer to travel in railroad trains, not driving a rental car. Train travel in Germany, for tourists, is very good. The Germany rail pass : unlimited train travel in any five days, probably would be a good value for you. And regional rail passes in Germany can be low cost.

Posted by
2 posts

Thanks for the input.

I picked Bologna because of the Lamborghini museums. Same with Stuttgart & the Porsche museum. If I'm going to be that close, I really need to stop and see them. Now I'm just debating whether to give up a few days food budget for the factory tours!

I'll look into Innsbruck, thanks.

For car v. train, I had seriously considered trains, especially for the Alps portion, so I could take more in, but we really like to be able to just stop and jump out when we see something interesting, and I like to set the GPS to "avoid highways" and see the countryside. Being where I am in Canada, we have to drive at least 6 hours to see anything interesting, so having so much to see in Europe, the real risk is having a 2 hr drive turn into 8 hrs of ogling.

Posted by
11841 posts

Remember, the passenger sees the scenery, the driver sees the road.

A driver 'ogling' usually ends with a Bang!

Posted by
2574 posts

I wouldn’t be too concerned about snow in Sept. Just be alert to any big cold front coming thru. Given your interest in cars, I would certainly visit Stuttgart.

Posted by
3050 posts

Don't forget the Mercedes Museum in Stuttgart - it's the better of the two car museums (but if you're a Porsche fan, by all means do the Porsche museum as well.). You can also visit the Mercedes factory in Sindelfingen and it's free with prior reservation (or at least it used to be). If you're doing both museums and a factory tour, Stuttgart is worth a 2 night stay at least, but would be more comfortable for 3. There's a lot of good half-day trips from here, such as the intact baroque palace at Ludwigsburg, the medieval cities of Esslingen and Tubingen, and the reconstructed but still amazing castle Hohenzollern.

I would consider leaving Vienna off a driving trip just because of the distance and time (I love Vienna, so it isn't personal). I'm very accustomed to driving long distances in the US, but find driving long distances in Europe more exhausting. The lanes are narrower, there's a lot of poorly driven semi-trucks on the road, and in Germany you have to deal with the constant switching between lanes because of the Audis going 240 kph in the left lane and the trucks doing 80 in the right. 4 hours on the road here feels like a full day to me and I wouldn't want to drive longer than that on vacation per day.

I would also consider a visit to Lake Constance (Bodensee), which is on on the German/Austrian/Swiss border. Lindau and Meersburg are fabulous cities, and the garden island of Mainau is fun to visit.

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