Need itinerary help for family of 4, w/2 teens

I’d do Stuttgart for the museums. Tuebingen is a good idea. I spent a week on my last visit. I would then head for the German alps, maybe stay in Mittenwald ( www.alpenwelt-karwendel.de ). Then head to Salzburg - do the salt mines. Also the ice cave in Werfen. Somewhere along the way, maybe a ropes course and a sommerrodelbahn. Then take the train from Salzburg to Venice.

In Germany you can save money by staying in ferienwohnung ( vacation apartments ). Almost always less than 2 horel rooms and much more spacious. My last trip, 3 of 4 places we stayed were fewos, and the only other place was a 3 room guesthouse where we had stayed 3 times before.

If you go the Switzerland route, I would be sure to include Zermatt for up to 3 days

Do you or your children speak any European languages? If so, that may help guide you...esp. the boys' abilities. Switzerland, of course, has German, French and Italian speaking areas. And Switzerland is a dream for hikes and climbs, including around Interlaken and Zermatt.

BTW, while I don't know about Mercedes and Ferrari, BMW has a museum by its office tower and "delivery center" in Munich, so that's one more piece to your puzzle. https://www.bmw-welt.com/en.html

It's so nice that you're taking the boys to Europe before they leave the nest. Since you have a year to plan, have you thrown it to the boys to see if they can come up with a good itinerary that would interest them. With Google Maps and Wikipedia, it's so easy to travel in your mind and come up with a plan.

My suggestion would be to fly into Frankfurt and then take the train to Stuttgart. From there, take the train over to Zurich and south into The Alps. You've been given the Swiss cities to visit, and from there you can a the train through the mountains down to Lugano and/or Lake Como, Italy. Milan is just a 45 minute train ride south of there. The Modena/Maranello area is east of Milan about 2 hours by train and a bus. Then you'll have to figure out how to get to Lamborghini which is in the countryside outside of Bologna.

The Ferrari Experience is a museum of sorts. The Lamborghini Experience is a museum and factory tour. I can see why young men would love to see automobiles that are close to perfection.

It's easy to get to Venice from Bologna by train. You were asking what's in Bologna. Perhaps the best food in all of Italy is there.

The tourist office in Bologna offered a good walking tour of the (very large) medieval center at the time of my 2015 visit. I enjoyed it a lot. That's a very atmospheric area for simply walking around.

Based on what you have said I presume you want to plan for your son's enjoyment.

Look into F1 Grand Prix events around the time you want to travel. Italian GP has been held at Imola in Italy and that is considered the "Home Track" of Ferrari. It is held in May or June. Same goes for the Austria Grand Prix. German Grand Prix is not a certainty of 2023 but the track is fairly close to Stuttgart.

I mention those because your son(s) seems to like cars. Don't forget the VW plant.

You might also look into a drive around the Nurburgring in Germany. Probably also available at the Italian tracks.

"Need itinerary help for family of 4..."

Let's assume arrival in Frankfurt on an open-jaws ticket.

Day 1: Train to Speyer (1 hr. from FRA airport) for a night. The Technik Museum here should be a real treat for the boys. Speyer's sights, including the old town, the Dom (maybe the finest Romanesque example in Germany?), the Jewish quarter, etc. are mistakenly overlooked by many visitors to Germany and include places with UNESCO World Heritage status:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g198634-Activities-a_allAttractions.true-Speyer_Rhineland_Palatinate.html

Day 2: Morning sightseeing in Speyer, depending on what you saw the day prior and your interests; train to Stuttgart (1-1.5 hrs) for 2 nights.

Note that Esslingen is a super-fine place closer to Stuttgart than Tübingen. See photos on the following page:

https://www.stadtbild-deutschland.org/forum/index.php?thread/866-esslingen-am-neckar-galerie/&pageNo=3

Day 4 and beyond: I would seriously consider bypassing Switzerland and instead making 1 or 2 stopovers of whatever time suits you on the direct route to Venice through the German, Austrian and Italian Alps via the Brenner Pass. You could break up the 9.5 - 10.5 hours of rail travel between Stuttgart and Venice in one or more places... Munich, Innsbruck, Bolzano, and Verona are on this route and would be among the possible stopover options. After Venice: train to Bologna and Milan, fly home from there.

https://www.seat61.com/trains-and-routes/munich-to-venice-by-eurocity-train.htm?msclkid=0c200b1dc0fa11ec95774f17273ea853

Not sure if you plan to take the trains or drive, but I'm pretty sure that this itinerary would involve some very nice train rides.

We took our teens to Mercedes in Stuttgart a few years ago. My husband and I had been before, but this was the first visit for the kids. It is one of the best museums we've ever been to. It showcases how world history has been influenced by the automobile and we all were surprised that we spent so much time there. If I'm ever in Stuttgart again, I would absolutely go back to the museum.

We also went to Porsche in Zuffenhausen where I rented my husband a 911 4S for the day. He took turns giving everyone a ride while the rest of us toured the museum. I would describe the Porsche museum as a 'car cathedral' rather than a museum.

We are BMW drivers so we also went to Munich and did a factory tour, which was a huge hit.

Our kids weren't too interested in museums either and enjoyed being outside. We did the TV tower in Stuttgart and that was a big hit. They loved eating Kaiserschmarrn (a shredded pancake) in the beer gardens. I would also recommend finding an alpine coaster. We did that twice and they still talk about it.

I would add that while others have recommended flying into Frankfurt, we found Stuttgart to be cheaper. You've got plenty of time to review flight prices.