Crazy to drive in the Alps in March?

I drove through portions of the Swiss Alps in June, and I've never been so scared in my life. It was definitely beautiful with a bit of snow around the edges of the roads. But the road we were on had NO guardrail and there was a cliff along the edge that was a sheer drop-off way way way down to the bottom. I'm normally not bothered by such things, but I know my knuckles were white I was holding to the steering wheel so tightly...I can't even imagine driving in the winter. Plus the Swiss Trains are so wonderful.

The Brenner pass is relatively straight, guard railed and well maintained. If you cross the Alps there it shouldn't be too bad.

I recently moved to DC from Washington State. I've driven regularly in snow through the Cascades, Rockies and Bitterroots with no accidents. The key is always go slow and steady. Leave plenty of room around yourself as a cushion and don't accelerate, brake or turn rapidly.

If it is snowing heavily, my favorite technique is to get behind a large truck (not tailgate) and drive in their tracks. Often I'm going 30 mph but arrive safely. The cars in the ditch are the ones that pass me going 50.

Unless you happen to get caught in a snowstorm that particular day, the roads should be clear and no more difficult to drive than any other time of year. When I was in Austria in the winter, the highways were fully plowed and salted the day after a large snowstorm.

Munich to Italy via the Brenner pass route is all freeway, all guard railed and all cleared. On that very route the challenges are more to avoid those heavy traffic jams - since this is the only "good" route between Bavaria and Italy all trucks, all other traffic uses it. What's the loop? Which other Alpine crossing do you need, other than Munich to Italy?

Thanks for the encouragement! Here's the two plans we're trying to decide between:

Original plan was to rent a car in Munich and drive in a loop:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/yu4n9o
That link goes to the very rough map since I don't know much about any of the roads.
The drawbacks would be this whole driving across mountains thing, plus the liability of having a car in big cities. The plus was going to be hanging out in the countryside, and I was particularly looking forward to the Cinque Terre.

Newer plan is amend this plan a bit by skipping some of the countryside we'd have seen but adding in Rome. We'd grab a cheap flight from Munich to Rome, spend a couple of days there, and then drive to Venice, stopping along the way. Drop off the car and take the train back to Munich. Maybe via Salzburg?

I'd been leaning toward the second plan until you guys started convincing me that maybe we could do the first. :-)

Ruth, your loop seems pretty well worked out and it makes very good sense! The western Alpine crossing is a tiny little bit more subject to weather conditions than the Eastern (Brenner) one. But we're still talking about big cleared streets, no tiny winding ones. You'll be find. One thing though: From the Kempten area do not drive across the mountains towards Liechtenstein. Take the freeway to Lindau (a beautiful island in the Lake of Constance) and stay there for at least half a day or a night. Then continue the all-freeway route towards Chur. When in that 3-country area keep in mind Diesel is cheapest in Austria, regular gas is cheaper in Switerland and Austria as it is in Germany. Do rent a Diesel car, they're much more popular because they get much better milage and fuel is around $1 cheaper per gallon than regular!

Ruth,

When are you going? I am doing something similar--arriving in Frankfurt on 3-7 and flying out from there on 3-17, driving into Italy via Neuschwanstein/Brenner pass and then returning through Switzerland through Luzern and along the Rhine.

Nancy, I hope you don't expect the drive along the rhine river from Basel to the Frankfurt area to be any exciting. There the river doesn't flow thru a gorge, there are no or hardly any castles. The only major sights there are the old town areas of Freiburg, Baden Baden and Heidelberg.

Andreas, you've talked me into the safety, but the draw of Rome has become too much. I'm still judging the price/time of a one-way rental from Rome back to Munich vs dropping off the car in Venice, though. It would be a fun drive, but I'm still worried about Germany's new law about requiring snow tires and whether Austria requires something similar. Renting a car in Rome where it looks like the average temp will be in the 70s by then, I imagine we'd need summer tires there.

This is the tough part of travel! :-D

You need to be aware that most car rental companies in Germany will not allow you to take certain cars into Italy. Also, I was checking last year to rent in one country and drop off in another and the cost was prohibitive. We happen to fly from country to country and rent a car within that country and not pay the drop off charge. This summer we are flying from Berlin to Milan (AirBerlin)for $1 Euro with taxes and fees it comes to $29Euros! Last year we flew from Munich to Rome (Condor)and the price was similar and you could not beat it with the price of gas as well. Also, we are experienced drivers in Europe and there is no way we would drive in Rome. You need to look at the driver in the eye and gesture him to stop in order to cross the street.
There are many options to see this beutiful countryside and I am sure you will find the way that is most comfortable for you.

Oh, no no no, not at all! We'll pick it up when we leave town and drop it off as soon as we get to Venice. I'm only moderately crazy. ;-)

Winter tyres are mandatory in Austria and Germany but the large car rental providers of course cope with that. You don't get a car with summer tyres until early to mid April.

Andreas--that's interesting about the tires. It seems like the completely logical answer, and yet, everything I've read has people paying about €15 more to get the rental companies to put winter tires on.
Winter tyres are mandatory in Austria and Germany but the large car rental providers of course cope with that. You don't get a car with summer tyres until early to mid April.

Linda--There are actually a couple of companies that don't charge extra for one-way international rentals, although the best I found only let you go Germany to Italy with it, not the reverse, oddly enough. I wouldn't be renting one expensive enough to be forbidden in Italy anyway. :-D Unfortunately we aren't going to get nearly as good a deal on the same Condor flight, probably because I've waited too late and because of the day of the week, but it'll still work out.

Oops, ran out of characters in the last post!

All--Here's the final plan. (Of course I've said that a few times now!)

We're going to fly from Munich to Rome (assuming I buy the tickets today!) and spend two days in Rome. Then we will rent a car as we are leaving the city (not having a car in Rome) and drive to Venice over the next few days, stopping along the way. We will drop off the car when we arrive in Venice (the one-way in-country rental doesn't cost any extra) and spend some time there. Then we plan to take the train back to Munich, rent a car, and drive a loop from Rothenberg down the Romatic Road to the Fussen/Neuschwanstein area and back to Munich. No driving in snow (I hope!) and very little car time in cities. Plus my husband's always wanted to take a train, so we'll get that in there too.