Tips for Florence to Venice/Dolomites

The train between Venice (actually Verona) and Munich goes right through the Trentino Alto-Adige wine region, and stops at the gateway to the Dolomites in Bolzano. Rather than a daytrip from somewhere else, I suggest you stop in Trento or Bolzano for three nights. Rent a car and spend one day doing a wine tour and one driving up into the Dolomites at Val Gardena. Or spend your nights in Val Gardena and tour vineyards on your way up and back. Of course that means one of you will have to be a "designated driver" and not enjoy the wines until dinner time when you are finished driving for the day.

Here is a nice article on the region with recommended wineries to visit:

http://wine.about.com/od/historyandculture/a/VisitingAltoAdi.htm

You could also rent the car at Venice (Piazzale Roma) and turn it in at Bolzano at the conclusion of your Dolomites time.

If you prefer not to drive at all, take the train to either Trento or Bolzano on the main line going toward Munich ( Venezia Santa Lucia, to Verona, change there for the northbound train to Innsbruck or Munich). You should be able to find guided wine tours with some persistent Googling. There is good bus service into the Dolomites from Bolzano.

You can take the train from Florence to Bolzano and rent a car there. (I believe EuropCar is at the Bolzano airport only, but there appears to be a Maggiore rental closer to the train station). Note that the car rental places in Bolzano are all closed on Sundays so if you happen to plan to arrive on a Sunday you'll need to rent the car in Verona and drive north from there.

Rick's recommended Castelrotto accommodation Hotel Cavallino D'Oro was fantastic. It is a beautiful town with very lovely people. Good breakfast and we had nice views from our room. It is about an hour from the "big" sights though except for Alpi Di Susi which is quite close. We found the drive back and forth between locations very beautiful though so we didn't mind the distances. Bolzano is a bit drab and far away from the sights in my opinion and I recommend staying either in Castelrotto, Val Gardena or the smaller surrounding villages. We really enjoyed the Saalstuben restaurant in Castelrotto also.

There is a lot to see in the Dolomites and you'll probably get sidetracked by beautiful things all along the way from one place to another so pick a few primary things you really want to see each day while you are there and prioritize them. Plan some time to relax at a beautiful place too though. At the end of your time in the Dolomites you could drive north through the Brenner Pass for some beautiful views on the way to Munich, or you could backtrack a bit and take the train from Bolzano for less views but a perhaps more convenient arrival. Either method will get you where you need to go. According to Rome2Rio.com it may actually be faster to drive than to backtrack for the train.

It will be faster by car but if you drive through the Brenner Pass to Austria it will be very expensive to drop the car there. That is why I suggested Bolzano. We picked up our Hertz car at the airport---very easy to reach with a taxi. There may be other companies that have offices nearer the train station, however.

But since they asked for suggestions on travel,by train, this rental car discussion may be moot.

Both Hertz and EuropCar are at the Bolzano airport - it's a small airport and the cars are right outside and the counters right inside - very user friendly. It's a short taxi ride to the train station which is on the edge of town - not much over 10 Euros as I remember.

It's easy to travel Venice-Bolzano by train, take the bus to Val Gardena, and in our case a taxi north from Ortisi to the next train station for the Munich bound train. But, if I understand correctly, you have only 2-2 1/2 days in Venice, it makes no sense to spend time in the Dolomites. You have time for only one of the two.

Thanks so much for the great advice! After review, we may have decided to forego Venice and stay our 2 days in Verona, on the way to Munich. We researched car rentals to drop off in Germany, and the cost was outrageous. It appears this itinerary may give us the taste of wine country we need and still allow us to hop back on the train without rushing around.
I'm starting to look up tours, private and guided, to Valipolocella and Soave, and it looks like we should be able to find one that allows for the meeting of smaller wine makers. Food experiences are also great. We may even try to make it to Lake Garda one day.