My husband and I just got back from an 18 day trip to Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. I thought I would share some information that you may find helpful. Just to give you some background, we stayed in Innsbruck, Austria, Munich, Rothenburg and Baden-Baden, Germany, Lucerne, Switzerland, Bellagio, San Gimignano & Rome, Italy. We also drove through but did not stay in Heidelburg, Pisa and Rhine Falls. If you have any questions about any of those places, feel free to ask.
If you are renting a car, be sure it has a GPS. I will never even consider another road trip without a GPS much less in a country were all of the signs are in a foreign language!
Use the ATM’s if you need cash. Don’t even bother with traveler’s checks. We had a hard time finding anywhere that would take them. Most but not all places take credit cards. Go to your bank and get some Euros before you go.
Bellagio, Italy – Our favorite place on our whole trip! Eat dinner at Hotel Florence by the lake. The pasta is out of this world to go along with the view. We also found the best wine. Bruno at Bellagio Point paints the bottles right in the shop. The bottles are beautiful! Go to bellagiopoint.com to look at the bottles.
Rome - The Vatican and Sistine Chapel – Somewhere I had read that the lines were the shortest on Tuesday after lunch. It may be true because we got there around 2:00 and walked straight in.
Get a Roma Pass so you can bypass the very long lines to get into the Colosseum. We probably saved ourselves about two hours in line.
One place to get a Roma Pass is the Termini, the main train station. Rick Steves’ book says to get the pass at the Tourist Information Station at Termini. It was very hard to find. The Tourist Information booth is next to track 24 but it is inside a “mall” about half way down the track.
The best dinner on our whole trip was at Il Pomodorino in Rome. It is up past the American Embassy on Via Campania.