Italy to Switzerland

Since Montecatini is not far from Florence, do your visit there first. You can drop the car in Florence and spend a few days there. I assume you are familiar with ZTL's, so take care of where you drive in Florence.
Take a high speed train from Florence to Milan. You can buy advance nonrefundable tickets at www.trenitalia.com.
For the trip to Switzerland, you can buy tickets at www.sbb.ch. The train between Brig and Andermatt follows the same route as the Glacier Express. If you time it right, you may be actually be able to ride this train for that leg. There is an extra reservation fee required for this, but it is less in the winter.

gina,

A few thoughts on your proposed trip......

• Having a car for travel around Calabria and the south is prudent, as the transportation options don't seem to be as well developed there. However, for the trip from Bari to Florence you might consider travel by rail on that route instead. The trip will be about seven hours with one change, but that will likely be faster than by car (especially as part of that trip is via Freccia trains, which travel at up to 300 kmH). It's possible that the trip from Bari to Rome will be easy, but at that time of the year the winter driving conditions in the more northerly parts of Italy could be a problem.
• As you're planning to drive in Italy, don't forget that each driver will require the compulsory International Driver's Permit, which is used in conjunction with your home D.L.
• Be sure to do some research on the dreaded Zona Traffico Limitato areas, which exist in many towns in Italy (even in the south). Violating these will result in a hefty fine, which you may not know about until several months after you return home. Florence is especially locked-down with automated ZTL cameras, so driving there could result in several tickets.
• Be careful with speed limits, as Italy is using the Traffic Tutor system and again, you won't know about the ticket until some time has passed.
• The trip from Montecatini Centro to Milano Centrale is very straight forward - about 3.5 hour with one change. One of the trains is often a Regionale (DON'T forget to validate) and the other a Freccia (compulsory reservations).
• For a day trip through "scenic Switzerland", I'd suggest choosing a location that's not going to require much travel time. For example, Lugano or Locarno are both within about an hour of MIlan. Another option would be to travel to Domodossola via "regular" train and then take the scenic Cento Valli railway to Locarno, returning by boat to Stresa in the early evening (although I'd have to check on whether the Cento Valli and boats run at that time of year). From Stresa its an easy hour or so back to Milan. There are all kinds of possibilities. When choosing a day trip location, be sure to take along some warm clothing.

Good luck with your planning!

thankyou for all the great advise.

car all sorted and being dropped in Florence before our week in Tuscany, driving further north too dangerous for us winter first timers

then to Milan by train as advised.

the day trip/ Glacia express or equivalent is difficult to book through sbb with all the connections were after and timetables not out that far in advance....

but we will keep trying.

Cheers

Gina, train schedules for December2014-May 2015 may not be posted yet, just keep checking the sites.

Hence it being difficult,
thankyou

Gina,
I had no problem getting pricing on your proposed trip to Switzerland. Simply specify a one way ticket from Milan to Andermatt and enter Brig in the "via" box. Then a one way ticket from Andermatt to Milan and leave the "via" box blank. That will give you the return via Goeschenen and Bellinzona. Use a date 30 days out to get the price. Another trick is that the site has a maximum of 5 persons and you have 6. So just do it for 1 adult and 2 children. Your children will travel at half the adult fare. Then double the price. You'll see that it is a very expensive trip. I'm coming up with a price of about 588 chf. Since much of the trip is in Italy and it is only one day, there really is not any Swiss pass product that saves money.

An alternate day trip would be to take the Bernina Express to St Moritz. That should be about 336 chf. There is a 10 chf added reservation fee per person to ride the actual Bernina Express train, although there are regular hourly trains that use this route without extra fees. At your option, you could return by bus over the Maloja Pass to Chiavenna and continue back to Milan on the train. The Italian train portion runs along the east shore of Lake Como and up a long valley to Tirano where you change to the Bernina Express.

All of Europe rejuggle their train schedules on December 14. They usually do not change a whole lot, but you can't buy tickets until the schedules are published, sometime in the next month or so.

Your a star, will do so and let you know how i get on

Thankuou so much again

Gina

hello,
finally booking this trip with only a few weeks to go till we leave Australia

we found a return :
Andermatt-Göschenen

Göschenen-Bellinzona

Bellinzona-Chiasso

Chiasso-Milano Porta Garibaldi

do you think the extra is a worthwhile visual train trip to take or sick to the direct Andermatt-Göschenen/ Göschenen-Bellinzona /Bellinzona-Milano?

Thankyou
Gina