Lake Como, Italy · Venice, Italy · Salzburg, Austria · Vienna, Austria
lakes, scenic trains, imperial cities, family friendly, alpine views, coffee houses, classical music, food
Varenna, Lake Como
Cloudy
Welcome to Italy. Once you clear Malpensa, today has one job: get you to the water, then let you do nothing in particular.
Aim to reach Varenna while there's still daylight so you can walk the shore in the golden hour before dinner. Keep tonight loose and let the jet lag fade into the view instead of fighting a schedule.
A shuttle from Malpensa connects to a lakeside train up to Varenna. It's an easy combination, and you won't need a rental car today.
Save your energy for a long dinner over the water rather than sightseeing. Varenna rewards a slow first night more than a busy one.
Varenna
Varenna is a small, pastel-toned village stacked above the eastern shore of Lake Como. Steep stone alleys climb from a waterfront promenade, with gardens spilling down toward the water.
Vecchia Varenna
Vecchia Varenna is a well-regarded restaurant built into an old stone building at the edge of Varenna's tiny harbor, with tables that sit almost on top of the water.
Bellagio and onward to Venice
Drizzle
Give the morning to Bellagio while the lake is still calm, then board the train for the long ride across Italy to Venice.
It's a long trip by rail, so pack coffee and snacks and enjoy the countryside going by. You're trading one kind of water for another today.
Ferry from Varenna to Bellagio in the morning, then train east to Venice in the afternoon. Check in and drop your bags, then head straight for a sunset ride down the Grand Canal. Let that be your real welcome to the city.
Climb Bellagio's stepped alleys before the midday visitors show up. In Venice, stand near the open rear deck of the vaporetto for a clear shot of the palaces.
Bellagio
Bellagio is an elegant lakeside town perched where Lake Como splits into its two southern arms. Stepped lanes wind past gardens and grand hotels.
Grand Canal Vaporetto Line 1
Vaporetto Line 1 is the slow local waterbus running the entire length of the Grand Canal, stopping at nearly every landing along Venice's main waterway.
Cantine del Vino gia Schiavi
Cantine del Vino gia Schiavi, known locally as Al Bottegon, is a historic bacaro and wine shop in Dorsoduro, loved for its inventive cicchetti and glasses of wine poured over a well-worn counter.
Venice
Rain
The trick to Venice is timing. Get to St. Mark's the moment the doors open, before the day-trip crowds arrive. The golden mosaics are nearly yours alone this early.
Once the marquee stops are behind you, slow down and let the back lanes and canals do the work. Wear comfortable shoes: you'll cover this city entirely on foot and by water.
Everything today is walkable, including a stretch along the Zattere promenade in the afternoon. No transit needed beyond your own two feet.
The Rialto fish and produce market is liveliest in early morning and winds down by midday. Near the Zattere, you can watch gondolas being built at the Squero di San Trovaso, one of the few working boatyards left in the city.
St. Mark's Basilica
St. Mark's Basilica is the great cathedral of Venice on Piazza San Marco, an Italo-Byzantine church covered inside with more than 8,000 square feet of golden mosaics.
Rialto Bridge
The Rialto Bridge is the oldest and most famous of the four bridges spanning Venice's Grand Canal, a single graceful stone arch lined with shops.
Zattere promenade, Dorsoduro
The Zattere is a broad, sunlit promenade running along the southern edge of the Dorsoduro district, facing the wide Giudecca Canal in Venice's lively university neighborhood.
Trattoria alla Madonna
Trattoria alla Madonna is a long-running, classic Venetian restaurant near the Rialto Bridge, known for traditional seafood and a lively, old-school dining room.
Salzburg, via the Brenner Pass
Rain
Today the journey is the destination. The line climbs through the Dolomites and over the Brenner Pass, trading Italy for Austria one window view at a time.
Pack a picnic and grab seats on the right side after Verona for the best mountain views. There isn't much to do but watch the scenery change, which is exactly the point.
One long train ride carries you north from Verona, climbing over the Brenner Pass before rolling into Salzburg. No transfers needed once you're aboard.
You'll arrive with just enough evening left for a memorable first dinner in Salzburg's old town.
St. Peter Stiftskulinarium
St. Peter Stiftskulinarium is a historic restaurant built into the walls of St. Peter's Abbey in Salzburg's old town, serving refined Austrian cuisine in centuries-old rooms.
Salzburg
Rain
Salzburg's old town is small enough to cover on foot and pretty enough that you won't mind the backtracking.
Ride the funicular up to the fortress first thing, before any haze rolls in, for the clearest views. Work your way down through Getreidegasse and across the river to the Mirabell gardens afterward.
Everything today is within walking distance except the funicular ride up to the fortress. No transit passes needed.
It's a gentle day, so leave room to slow down for a pastry or a coffee. Cap it off with a barrel-poured beer in the monastery garden at Augustiner Braustubl.
Hohensalzburg Fortress
Hohensalzburg Fortress is a massive medieval castle crowning the hill above Salzburg's old town, one of the largest fully preserved fortresses in Europe.
Getreidegasse and Mozart's Birthplace
Getreidegasse is Salzburg's best-known shopping street, a narrow old-town lane lined with tall townhouses and elaborate wrought-iron guild signs, home to the yellow house where Mozart was born.
Mirabell Palace Gardens
The Mirabell Palace Gardens are formal baroque gardens in central Salzburg. Geometric flowerbeds and fountains fill the grounds, with statues throughout and framed views up to the fortress on the hill.
Augustiner Braustubl
Augustiner Braustubl is a vast, cheerful monastery brewery and beer hall in Salzburg's Mulln district, where beer is poured straight from wooden barrels into heavy stone mugs.
Wolfgangsee and onward to Vienna
Cloudy
Start with the lakes. A short bus ride drops you at the Wolfgangsee, quieter and closer than Hallstatt but every bit as pretty in the autumn light.
By midday you'll be back on the train, trading alpine calm for imperial grandeur as you speed toward Vienna.
Bus from Salzburg to St. Gilgen in the morning, then train east to Vienna in the afternoon.
Save a little energy for arrival. An evening stroll along the floodlit Ringstrasse is the best possible introduction to the capital.
St. Gilgen, Wolfgangsee
St. Gilgen is a picturesque village on the shore of the Wolfgangsee, set among the mountains of the Salzkammergut lake district east of Salzburg.
Vienna Ringstrasse
The Ringstrasse is Vienna's grand circular boulevard, a broad tree-lined avenue that loops around the historic center past monumental palaces and museums, with civic buildings filling out the route.
Vienna
Rain
Today belongs to the Habsburgs. Book a timed slot at Schonbrunn and give the whole morning to the grounds: the palace and formal gardens first, then the maze, before finishing with the walk up to the Gloriette.
Break up the day with a Viennese coffee house ritual. Here that's a genuine institution, not just a caffeine stop.
Schonbrunn sits outside the center, reachable by tram or metro. The Belvedere and Cafe Central are both closer in, an easy walk or short tram ride apart.
Finish with Klimt at the Belvedere, or just wander its free baroque gardens if everyone's had their fill of art for the day.
Schonbrunn Palace and Gardens
Schonbrunn Palace is the former imperial summer residence of the Habsburgs on the edge of Vienna, a sprawling baroque palace of some 1,440 rooms surrounded by vast formal gardens.
Belvedere Palace
The Belvedere is a pair of baroque palaces in Vienna set in tiered formal gardens, now a museum whose collection includes the largest holding of works by Gustav Klimt.
Cafe Central
Cafe Central is one of Vienna's grandest historic coffee houses, set beneath soaring arched ceilings in a 19th-century palace on Herrengasse.
Vienna
Cloudy
Trade palaces for pavement today and see how Viennese life actually works. Wander the Hofburg and the lanes around St. Stephen's, then let lunch be a lazy graze through the Naschmarkt stalls.
The afternoon is pure fun at the Prater, where the old Ferris wheel and the funfair make for a light-hearted break.
The Hofburg, St. Stephen's, and Naschmarkt are all walkable from the center. The Prater and the Opera are a short tram or metro ride away.
End on a high note, literally, with standing-room tickets to the opera. You can slip out early if the day catches up with you.
Hofburg Palace
The Hofburg is Vienna's sprawling former imperial palace at the center of the old town, a complex of wings and courtyards opening onto squares that served as the principal residence of the Habsburg rulers.
Naschmarkt
The Naschmarkt is Vienna's largest and best-known open-air market, a long run of food stalls and produce stands mixed with casual eateries, stretching for nearly a mile near the city center.
Prater and the Wiener Riesenrad
The Prater is a large public park in Vienna, home to the Wurstelprater amusement park and its landmark Ferris wheel, the Wiener Riesenrad.
Vienna State Opera
The Vienna State Opera is one of the world's leading opera houses, a grand Ringstrasse landmark that stages a different production nearly every night of its long season.
Vienna
Cloudy
Your last day is yours to shape. If you want to stay in town, one of the world's great art museums is an easy and rewarding choice.
If you'd rather roam, the Danube unfurls toward Melk and the Wachau, and Bratislava sits just an hour away by train.
The Kunsthistorisches Museum is a short walk or tram ride from the center. Melk and the Wachau run on regular train service, and so does the hop to Bratislava, so no advance planning beyond a ticket is needed.
Keep the pace gentle and leave room for a leftover craving or two, then send the trip off in style with a classic Vienna schnitzel dinner.
Kunsthistorisches Museum
The Kunsthistorisches Museum is Vienna's monumental art museum on the Ringstrasse, holding the imperial Habsburg collections across painting and antiquities, plus decorative arts.
Figlmuller
Figlmuller is a historic Vienna restaurant near St. Stephen's Cathedral, famous above all for an enormous Wiener schnitzel pounded thin and fried until it spills over the edge of the plate.
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