I am looking for some help / feedback with figuring out some budget friendly intercountry travel itinerary specifically going through Alps from Spain on the way to Italy.
Some background - this is my fourth trip to Europe and first with a travel partner (stepmom). We plan to travel for about 3 weeks beginning July 16 (the return date is flexible). Our only definite is walking the last 100 km of the Portugese route of the Camino de Santiago (I walked the Camino Ingles last summer). Other places she is interested in is the Alps/Switzerland and Italy. She has never been (I went to Italy last summer, mostly following RS suggested Itinerary), and she expressed an interest in art history. I thought Florence would be a good base for the both of us (to see museums, cultural sites, and day trip). We're trying to fit it all into 3 weeks and be smart about not trying to do too much. I have no experience in the Alps region / Switzerland and would like help with figuring how to link from Spain and heading toward Italy. The Berner Oberland region seems interesting. We would like to do some easy / moderate hiking, taking it a little easy recovering from our camino. Would Zurich be the best place to fly into? Or is there another city that would be better to reach this region? Do you recommend train routes that are equal to/better than flying from Spain to the Alps or from the Alps to Italy?
We plan to use public transportation for the whole journey.
I have always booked multi-city (into London/out Glasgow, into Madrid/out Paris, into London/out Rome) from Seattle. My stepmom is flying from Denver. I was shocked at the prices I was finding looking at my usual Kayak/Google Flights. The cheapest I could find for a multi-city was $1700 (last year on June 1st I booked $877 ticket for the in London/out Rome commencing travel on July 15). That's why I ended up checking what a roundtrip to/from London and found one for $1000. EDIT: thanks to comments, looked for a connection out of Milan or Venice and found a multi-city ticket for $1300.
I chose London as the start because it is cheaper to fly into than Madrid, and is easy to get a cheap domestic flight over to our Camino starting point (Tui - Vigo is the closest airport). So far I have:
Arrive London 7/17
London to Vigo 7/20
Santiago to Zurich 7/28
Zurich to Florence 8/1
Milan or Venice back to Denver 8/9ish