Larger group - ideal cities to stay for an 8 day trip?

You are on the right track; stick with arrive in Zurich (since you can get a direct flight from the USA), train to Lucerne stay for a few days, then Lauterbrunnen or Murren, and move on to Lugano. You can't go wrong that. Then continue by train to Florence and so on. Fly back from Rome or Naples.

First, do not stay in cities. Switzerland is not about cities, it is about mountains, lots of them.

My initial thought was to arrive in Zurich, stay in Lucerne for a few days, then Lauterbrunnen or Murren, and move on to Lugano en route to Italy.

That is a perfect plan.

Luzern (local spelling) is a nice town, and only 70 minutes by train from Zürich airport, so a stress-free arrival. Plenty of hotels walking distance from station.

The Berner Oberland is a good choice, specifically the Jungfrau region. This has 4 localities:

• Lauterbrunnen, a village/town in a valley famous for waterfalls. Google it for photos
• Grindelwald, a larger town in the next valley. Choose if you want more facilities.
• Wengen, a village half way up the side of the valley above Lauterbrunnen. No cars (road ends at Lauterbrunnen).
• Mürren, a village on the opposite side of the valley above Lauterbrunnen. Also no cars.

All 4 are reachable by rail, and have trains and cable cars to go further up to the tops of the mountains.
For more info about this area, and hotels, official tourist website: https://jungfrauregion.swiss/en/summer/

Bern can be done as a day trip from either. Reserve it as your contingency plan for a bad-weather day.
Train route from Luzern to Jungfrau Region is scenic (over Brünig pass).

Do not fly to Italy, do it by train and enjoy the views. If you choose Lugano as your third location, you can have a day on scenic trains getting there from the Berner Oberland.

Don't worry about finding trains, all rail lines in Switzerland have at least one train per hour. There will be trains. And Lugano is on the main line to Milan, from which you can reach anywhere in Italy.

Train resources:
1) Swiss rail map. Red lines are rail, and each one has at least one departure per hour: https://www.sbb.ch/content/dam/sbb/de/infotexte/uebersichtskarte-sts.pdf
2) SBB (Swiss Federal Railways), for train times: https://www.sbb.ch/en
3) Trenitalia (Italian national railways), for train times: https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html

More detailed questions, please ask.

I'd recommend Lauterbrunnen, which is a transportation hub.
If you want to find a place that will accommodate that many people, I'd recommend you write Angi at flat@hornerpub.ch
She has helped me on 3 different times find apartments in Lauterbrunnen for 6 to 8 people.

For the older folks and kids, I'd recommend the Berner Oberland Pass, which will let them see the whole area without too much effort. For $20 or so you can get a Family Card which gets the kids a free pass for the region.

For the teen and 40's, they may want to try some trails that might be free of snow (check with local Tourist Info).
If you click on my name, you'll find a link to our dozen favorite trails in the area, with maps and pics. In May, the higher ones may well be covered in snow. It just depends on the winter snowfall.

Lauterbrunnen. Not only it is a beautiful place to stay, it is logistically the best place as a base to many day trips.

I agree with all the above.

Do any of the older folk have any breathing difficulties or heart problems? It might be worth checking before taking everybody up the high mountains.

The kiddoes may enjoy the funicular up the Gurten in Bern, and maybe some of the attractions up there such as the miniature park railway.

Wow! Everyone has been so generous with responses. Thank you so very much. Especially thanks for the trail suggestions 😊

To answer the health question, we have 1 person with a heart defibrillator, 1 person with cancer in breast/lungs, and everyone else is basically in reasonable shape if they don’t push it too far without taking a break. I would not have thought to consider the altitude, said the girl from Ohio, so will advise on everyone checking out the plans with their doctors before we make final plans. (ergh, thank you, you may have just helped us avoid a very bad situation!!!).

Is there an key advantage of the Berner Oberland card over the Swiss Travel Pass that I should evaluate if it makes sense for us ? I know the Swiss Travel Pass doesn’t cover all aspects of lifts, etc. I have been doing some analysis and I’m not hitting a good comparison yet to make a decision on this. My kids (the toddlers) will travel free it appears, but any discounts for the 60s will be appreciated.

I have been reviewing weather reports and trip reports. If we stay in Lauterbrunnen in easily May - think like 2nd week. - is that risky for having restaurants, shops, etc. closed, in the area, as it’s truly too between-seasons? We don’t intend to hike, but we would like to take the cable car to Schilthorn and maybe some other scenic adventures that are to be determined. I just don’t want to make a boneheaded move right out of the gate 😊 when a decision to stay elsewhere and adventure to the area if the weather is good is a better move. This is an ideal time period for our trip as the aforementioned cancer patient will be between chemo treatments (she’s been taking this program for 5 years, we are as confident in planning for her to come as we can be).

Finally, we are not planning on renting vehicles. Is that something that should be reconsidered? I mean, we can split into taxis or something, but if I should be considering a mini bus for part of the time, etc., I’d welcome that recommendation. I’m going to look into that for some touring in Italy.

Thanks again✈️😊