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2026 N Italy/Austria Itinerary Feedback

Hi all,
My husband and I are planning a 3-week trip to Northern Italy and a bit of Austria in June 2026 and am looking for feedback on our tentative itinerary! We are looking to do a relatively slower-paced trip, and will be hitting both Lake Como and Lake Garda. I have previously received feedback that I should choose one or the other, however, my husband has never been to Lake Como and it is a must-see for him, and neither of us have been to Lake Garda so are interested in seeing that lake region as well. So of all the possible tweaks to our itinerary, we are keeping both of those places! We are planning on doing some hiking, relaxing, eating, and drinking wine! I am very interested in ancient Roman history as well and my husband is a huge fan of Beretta shotguns (thus the stop in Brescia).

  1. Fly in to Milan, head directly to Varenna
  2. Varenna
  3. Varenna
  4. Train to Brescia
  5. Brescia
  6. Brescia; pick up rental car
  7. Malcesine
  8. Malcesine
  9. Malcesine
  10. Tramin
  11. Tramin
  12. Tramin
  13. Ortisei
  14. Ortisei
  15. Ortisei
  16. Ortisei
  17. Drop rental car off in Bolzano, train to Innsbruck, pick up another rental car and drive to Finkenberg
  18. Finkenberg
  19. Finkenberg
  20. Salzburg
  21. Salzburg
  22. Salzurg
  23. Fly home

All thoughts are appreciated! Thank you!!

Posted by
1650 posts

Why do you want to detour to Finkenberg? It seems like there is too much driving south from Innsbruck.

Posted by
13 posts

It was recommended on this forum as a beautiful Austrian Alps village somewhat reminiscent of the Lauterbrunnen area of Switzerland and that’s off the tourist trail. Since it’s not too terribly far out of the way I thought it would be a nice stop. Do you have any other recs for that area? We plan to see Innsbruck when we pick up the rental car, but don’t want to stay there.