Italy itinerary--the most logical order

Just a note: Salzburg to Venice is about 7+ hours by train. So essentially, you are using a whole day just to get there, leaving you one whole day in Venice, or zero days if you decide to day trip to Verona. In fact, you need to consider just how much of your time your using up in transit - its not just the train (or plane) time itself, its the packing, getting to rail station, waiting, etc. That makes the one night stays only a few hours of sightseeing.

If you are ambivalent about Venice, I suggest you skip it. It is a journey of 7-8 hours from Salzburg by train. You would spend most of the day getting there then have just one full day in Venice before moving on. Not even that if you choose to just give it one night. Venice is very hot and crowded in June, and as much as I love the city we do not go at all in the summer.

Instead, head to Verona, which is a more reasonable journey of around 6 hours. Spend the two nights there. You could visit Venice on a day trip from Verona; it is only an hour away on the fast train.

If it were me, I would go Venice to Florence to Rome to Cinque Terre to Milan, taking a direct Freccia or Intercity train that travels along the coast from Rome to La Spezia. I would drop a night in Cinque Terre and add it to Venice or Florence. Imo 2 nights in either Venice or Florence isn't enough and 3 nights in Cinque Terre is too much. You can easily day trip to Verona from Venice, so that might be a good place to add a night. For Cinque Terre, I prefer Monterosso or alternatively Vernazza. Lucca really isn't "near" Cinque Terre, so that's not a good choice. If you can't find lodging in Cinque Terre, then a closeby town like Levanto could be an option.

Edit: Expanding on Lola's suggestion, you might take a night from Cinque Terre and stop in Verona, then continue on to Venice the next day. I'm not a big fan of one-night stops, but it would be the most logical order.

My first thoughts are that you are trying to take on too many cities for the days allotted on the trip. The itinerary covers just so many miles with The Alps in between.
My second thought is that you're flying into Munich, a great European city with so many sights that'd be interesting to teenagers. But you're not going to see the city. I'd easily give up the 3 days in the Cinque Terre to see Munich.
You would do better to fly into Rome and work your way north. Zurich is just so far out of the way to fly out of.
A better itinerary would be Rome (4 nights), Florence (2 nights), Venice (2 nights), Innsbruck (1 night), Salzburg (2 nights) and the balance of your time in Munich. That's traveling essentially in a straight line and to cities that compliment each other.
Italy alone is worthy of 100% of your time, but I understand you wanting to branch out. Don't forget that The Alps in Western Tirol, Austria are absolutely incredible scenery and well worth seeing.

Thank you for all of these responses. We have already purchased our plane tickets, so the time from Munich and to Zurich are out of our control at this point.

I appreciate the insight that spending three nights in Cinque Terre is too much. This is really helpful. I figured it was one of those places that we would want to get to and not want to leave. :)

And thank you for the correction on Levanto, Frank. That is what I meant. I am not sure what I was thinking, writing Lucca! Too much reading.

Looking at your list of destinations and knowing that you're committed to Munich/Salzburg and Zurich, I would say skip Rome. It's out of the way from the other places, and you need more time in those places. Rome in itself has so much to see and do -- save it for another trip.

Personally I did not enjoy Milan, but to each his/her own. What does your daughter want to see there? If it's The Last Supper, check other threads regarding availability of tickets.

May I ask why you bought tickets into Munich and out of Zurich if you aren't planning on seeing those areas? I haven't been to Zurich, but Munich deserves at least 2 (I would say 3) nights if it is your first time there. Start there before heading to Salzburg, which I loved by the way. Since it will take you a whole day to get to Venice (or stay in Verona as was previously suggested) I would say 3 nights there. You can see Verona, Venice, and I would add Ravenna, Padua or both. In that case make it 4 nights. I think that would leave you 5 nights excluding the night in Zurich. So I would say 3 nights in Florence, 2 in the Cinque Terre, and off to Zurich for flying out. I hate to say cross Rome off your list, but I think you might need to because of your flights. Either that or skip the Veneto and add that time back into Rome, but then you have a extremely long travel day to Florence from Salzburg (9.5 hours). Good luck! Whatever you choose you will have a great time.

You are getting good specifics on your itineraries. I wanted to just mention a website I use for planning logisitics....Rome2Rio. It will show routjngnon a map that will clearly mark areas where you might be backtracking or which city might be too far out of the way. It lists the companies providing the various modes of transport, but may not be completely up to date for pricing and departure times, so check on the relevant transport websitr. I use it as a big picture reference.

Yes, analyzing your trip through Rome2rio for the big picture logistically is essential.

First off, I love Rome. It is where I want to base on long trips to Italy when I retire. That being said, the first time we were there 9 years ago, it was for 3 days/2 nights and I didn't 'get' Rome from that short a time, and didn't want to return. In February 2017, we stayed in an apartment for a week and fell quite in love with Roma. For that reason, I advise you to skip Rome this time--you need more time to give it full measure, and it's your southernmost point besides.

And I don't think I'd be trying to fit 5 destinations in 13 nights in 2 countries. Yes, you can do it, but be advised that you will be on the road a lot. It would be a lot for me and I absolutely love riding European trains. It would look like this, without Rome in the equation:

Arrive Munich, train to Salzburg --1 hr, 52 min-- (3 nights)
Train to Venice --6 hrs, 46 min-- (3 nights)
Train to Florence --2 hrs, 5 min-- (3 nights)
Train to La Spezia --2 hrs, 27 min-- (3 nights)
Train to Milan --2 hrs, 54 min-- (1 night)
Train to Zurich --4 hrs, 3 min-- (1 night)

As stated above, you'll be jetlagged coming into Munich, so give yourself an extra day in Salzburg.

Enjoy your planning!

Rome2Rio is good for an overview, but for the actual details of train travel, you should look at Bahn.de, which shows the complete schedules.

Rome2Rio says from Salzburg to Venice takes 6 hr. 46 minutes, using train to Villach (runs every 2 hours) and train from there to Venice (3x a day). The problem is most of them do not line up. There are no departures from Villach to Venice between 10:50 and 16:49. To make the earlier one, you must depart Salzburg on the 8:12 am train; not the best time with teens still recovering from jet lag. And the later 16:49 departure from Villach would get you into Venice after 8 pm, again not the best for a travel schedule (skipping meals or altering the time significantly is not the best plan for happy travelers).

Each of these journeys actually takes less time than the 16:46 claimed by R2R. I did not quote the time (under 6 hours) in my earlier post because I would regard both of these as pretty unrealistic with a family, especially early in the trip. One leaves too early and the arrives too late.

The only journey shown on Bahn.de that takes that 6 hours 46 minutes claimed in Rome2Rio involves a bus leg from Villach to Udine and train from there, arriving in Venice at 22:55!

So you can look at Rome2Rio for an overview, but I suggest you use bahn.de to nail down the actual details.

I also would suggest seeing Munich. I would skip Rome as it is most out of your way. Munich is a nice sized place and it would give you contrast to Austria which is different than Germany. Personally I enjoyed Munich more than Rome.

Is your daughter interested in fashion? One of my friend’s daughters wanted to go to Milan for that reason.

Hopefully your airfare was free ( or nearly so) to use your Munich and Zurich as your gateway cities for what is mostly a trip to Italy.

Have you looked at the travel time between each of your destinations? and looked at the actual schedules? You may end find you are spending more time in transit than you realize

We have planned an aggressive itinerary in Italy. (I know; it is a lot.)

Very true. Is there no hope of ever going again?

You have 13 days - can't count the 12th or 26th. Here's what the real picture looks like:

Day 1 - Salzburg
Day 2 - travel from Salzburg to Venice
Day 3 - Venice
Day 4 - travel to Rome
Day 5 - Rome
Day 6 - Rome
Day 7 - travel to Florence, 1/2 day Florence
Day 8 - Florence
Day 9 - travel to the CT, 1/2 day CT
Day 10 - CT
Day 11 - CT
Day 12 - travel to Milan, 1/2 day Milan
Day 13 - 1/2 day Milan, travel to Zurich

Expect hot weather in Italy, which will slow you down. I don't think there's enough time anywhere except the CT for a single traveler, let alone a family of 4. I can move efficiently when I want or need to. Keeping 4 people moving together isn't simple. Also, when are you going to do laundry? Shop for gifts, souvenirs, unexpected stuff (band-aids, hand cream)?

Just sayin'

Hi all, I just wanted to give everyone an update that we have planned our trip, thanks to all of the (almost entirely) helpful comments we received from this Forum! We were able to take a close look at our itinerary. Thanks to your advice, we allocated more time in Florence and less time in Cinque Terre. We are staying in Monterosso, per the recommendation of one forum member. There are so many other recommendations from you all that informed our plan as well, but they are too numerous to name. The point is that your taking the time to share your insights was invaluable. Thank you again so much.

The biting tone of the second-to-last reply caught us off guard a bit and prompted us to take a little break. Clearly (and probably obviously to the respondent), we did not get the airline tickets for free, but the flight actually was very affordable, such that it put this trip within a budget we could manage. And regarding that same respondent’s rhetorical remark about whether there is “no hope” of going back again: Without going into the specifics, in case it matters, we actuallly will almost certainly not be going back to Italy as a family again. We prefer not to dwell on that reality and the reasons behind it, though, and thanks to most of you, we are looking to our upcoming travels with positivity, happiness and a light heart.

Cheers! Enjoy the beautiful spring.

Wishing you and your family a lovely trip!

My apologies for what you found to be 'biting' remarks.

I am truly amazed that flying to Munich and home from Zurich, works out to be a lower cost when the cost of getting from Munich to Venice and Milan to Zurich are factored in. It seems you did your homework and found a way to do so.
I was stunned at the choice of arrival and departure points for what is primarily a visit to Italy.

I do hope you enjoy your trip. Italy is a fabulous place to visit.