Northern Italy

I have had so much help from this website planning trips and getting advice so I decided to write my lastest trip report in hopes it may help another person like it has helped me.
My husband and I just completed a trip to northern Italy and Switzerland. I will cover the first of 4 legs of this trip here now and log the rest later.
We found cheap tickets from Laguardia to Milan, Italy for $485 a person, round-trip. We were thrilled at the price! We picked up our rental car in Milan and drove to Varenna, Italy on Lake Como. We stayed at Hotel Du Lac and loved it. We had a room with a balcony and were so pleased with this suggestion of a place to stay. We took the ferry the next day and did the gardens of Villa Del Bambinello and Bellagio. The gardens were well worth the trip and we thought Bellagio was fun to walk through and shop, even in the rain. Rick is right suggesting buying a ferry ticket and use it to go from town to town. It is a beautiful place to go and we thoroughly enjoyed it.
Because we had a rental car we had to catch the ferry with our car to Menaggio and drive the GPS suggested Swiss interstate to Lauterbrunnen. The scenery was breathtaking.....the GPS took us off the interstate and over the mountain to Lauterbrunnen. We figured it was because of road-work. It put us through Wassen, Switzerland....and this was the day that the farmers were moving their cattle down the mountains...what a treat! The men walked behind their cows carrying their huge, decorated bells. It was fun seeing this! Realized that having the car gave us the freedom to do this! The road was a mountainous, roller coaster, hairpin turn filled adventure....and it snowed on us the entire drive! I was thrilled when that was over and we arrived at the main road leading us to Interaken.