Perfect 14 Day Itinerary: Northern Italy & Switzerland

This perfect 14 day itinerary to northern Italy and Switzerland takes logistically efficient train and ferry routes to maximize quality times in each area.

Night 1-2: Starting at Milan Malpensa International Airport, you’ll spend the first two nights in Milan. There are you will see Michelangelo‘s last supper, the Milan Cathedral, the Vitorio Emmanuel II Galleria, Sforza Castle and the famous Milan Opera House.

Night 3-4: Next travel by train to Stresa, Italy for two nights on beautiful Lago de Maggiore in the Italian Alps. Take ferries to and from The Borromean Islands.

Night 5-6: From Stresa, you will board a train, crossing over the border into Switzerland at Domodossola. Changing trains at Brig you will head towards Zermatt. In Zermatt, take the Gornergrat train up to view glaciers, from there take gondolas over to connect to the Matterhorn express gondola that will take you up over 13000 feet to view the Matterhorn.

Night 7-10: leaving Zermatt by train, connecting at Spiez to Interlaken to the breathtaking Lauterbrunnen Valley. Alternatively, you can get off the train at Spiez and take a ferry across Lake Thun to Interlaken. This is the route we took. If you get the Swiss Travel Pass, the ferries in Switzerland are included with the pass. You can take day trips from Lauterbrunnen to the Top of the Jungfrau, Murren, Wengen, Grindelwald, Interlaken, Spiez and Brienz.

Night 11: leaving Lauterbrunnen by train you will connect and Interlaken to Montreaux on the eastern side of Lake Geneva. In from there, you can take a short train to visit well preserved medieval Chillon Castle. Walk the waterfront in Montreaux and go swimming in the lake. You can also take a short train to Lausanne to see the headquarters of the Olympics.

Night 12-13: take a ferry (preferably) or a train from Montreaux across Lake Geneva to Geneva. On the way you can stop at Lusanne, Switzerland, Evian, France the source of the bottled water of the same name, the medieval walled town of Yviore, France and arriving in Geneva. In Geneva, there is a beautiful cathedral, great places to swim on the shore of the lake and CERN.

Day 14: Depart from Geneva International Airport.