7 day itinerary for Italy, Switzerland, Austria

7 days? Pick 2, that’s it. May I suggest 3 nights in Florence as base so you could potentially Day trip to Cinque Terra. Then take the fast train to Rome and spend 4 nights there. So much to see, so little time!

With your seven day three country itinerary you will be seeing everything from planes, trains and coaches and not spending much time with feet on the ground. Start with: https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/trip-planning/itinerary-tips

Looks like an audition for "The Amazing Race"

You planning to truly visit anywhere or just 'check off the boxes'

I will echo the 'pick 2' advice.

If you haven’t purchased your flight, yet, select a multi-city which is flying into Venice or Milan and flying home from Rome, for instance. Now the difficult part, you need to narrow down the locations to three at the most. Use the site www.rome2rio.com to see how much transportation time to arrive at your next location. Aim for no more than 3 hours of train or car transportation time on days you’re traveling. You will enjoy your trip much more if you spend more time seeing sites vs. traveling time.

In seven days you would be rushed to see even "the lakes", cinque terre, and Rome.

But if you have open jaw tickets, into Milan and out of Rome, you could head straight to Varenna on Lake Como for two nights, then travel (6 hours by train ) to Cinque Terre for two night, and then head to Rome for the last two nights ( assuming you mean seven days, not seven nights).

ThT is a lot of moving around in a short time. Our rule is that anyplace worth visiting is worth two nights and a full day, unless it is simply a nice and convenient stop en route between two other main deatinTions.

Thank you all so much for the help! You confirmed my concerns with the packed schedule. I will definitely do some condensing!!
We want it to be amazing ...but not race through it all!! Thanks again!

Agree w/all........You will spend most of your time in transit. Chose two. You can always do a day trip to another city/town from any locations you select.

The cities/towns you choose to visit, should be based on you and your daughter's personal interests. I'm an art history person and my husband is more of the outdoor type. (Though we both enjoy both types of experiences.) For the art history-type, you can't spend enough days in Florence. For the outdoor-type, the hiking trails in the Cinque Terre National Park and the Monterosso Beach are unforgettable. For the religious and/or history-type, Rome is a must.

Personally, I would skip Venice. And I would spend more time in Florence than Rome. (But that's based on my personal interests.) Logistically, you could do something like this:

Day 1 - Arrive in Milan.

If you land in the AM, take the train to Cinque Terre. (Monterosso has the largest beach.)

If PM, spend the night in Milan and take early train to Cinque Terre.
Day 2 - Cinque Terre
Day 3 - AM: Cinque Terre (Or take the early train to Lucca?)
PM: Train to Florence
Day 4 - AM: Florence
PM: Tuscany Wine Tour(?)
Day 5 - AM: Florence

PM: Train to Rome
Day 6 - Rome
Day 7 - AM: Rome
PM: Return Flight

But all of this can be juggled........Want to spend more time in Rome? Shorten Florence or Cinque Terre. Want to spend more time in Florence? Skip Lucca and go straight to Florence. Or forget the Tuscany Wine Tour. The important part is creating a defined itinerary, including your train/travel schedules. We pre-purchase our train tickets before we leave on our trips. It helps give us a clear, predictable itinerary.

Finally,.......On our first trip, we pre-purchased tours for the big sites, such as the Vatican and museums in Florence. I'm really glad we did so. The tours helped reduce the time we spent in lines, and provided more information than we would've ever read prior to our trip. On our last trip, we didn't go on a single tour........We developed enough confidence to navigate churches and museums on our own. However, if we ever to return to the Vatican, I will still sign-up for a tour.

What a wonderful experience for you and your daughter to share!!!

Thank you for the tip on Monterroso. And we will definitely pre purchase for our Rome tours now! We have decided to skip the long trips out of Italy which will allow us to slow down a bit. Any thoughts on including Pisa or skipping??

Glad to see you've decided to stay put in Italy. Sound advice so far.

Just to reinforce this, note that the total area of Italy, Switzerland and Austria is about the same as California. Anybody planning to 'do California' in one week would be crazy!

As for an Italian itinerary, it would help if you listed some of the things you and your daughter enjoy. Obviously, a week in the Lakes District would be very different to a week in Rome, though both are wonderful!

Pisa-- if you have a couple hours to spare as you transit from one place to the next, do so, so you can see the Tower

I found Pisa disappointing after Lucca and Florence, when we visited Tuscany. The tower and adjacent precinct is of course an iconic site known to all and pretty impressive, but other than that, Pisa itself was pretty ordinary. Consequently, I would advise folks visiting the area to decide just how much they want to see the tower (also bearing in mind it will be busy) and so, unless it's on your bucket list and/or you have plenty of time in the area anyway, give it a miss.

Lucca, on the other hand, I thought lovely.