The Family Europe Trip — Switzerland, France, Italy

The Backstory

My brother went through every Rick Steves video and built us an itinerary.

We started in Zurich, looped south through the Alps and Alsace villages into Italy, worked our way down the boot to the Amalfi Coast, then back north through Tuscany, and finished back in Switzerland. Three countries, one loop, two weeks.

Zurich→ Alsace Villages→ Ebenalp→ Venice→ Lake Como→ Cinque Terre→ Rome→ Amalfi Coast→ Civita di Bagnoregio→ Florence→ Lake Lucerne→ Zurich

The Full Route

Two weeks. One loop.

Click any pin to see what we did there. Numbered in order of the route.

Tap pins to explore each stop · Scroll to zoom

Stop 01 · Start & End

Zurich

Switzerland

Our base in and out. Clean, beautiful city on the lake. Worth a day to wander before hitting the road.

Stop 02 · Alsace, France

Colmar, Eguisheim & Kaysersberg

Alsace · France

Three villages, each one feeling like a storybook. Colmar is the most famous — the half-timbered houses and canals are genuinely as pretty as the photos. Eguisheim and Kaysersberg are smaller and quieter. All three are worth exploring on foot. This region is underrated and most people skip it entirely.

Stop 03 · Swiss Alps

Ebenalp + Aescher House

Appenzell · Switzerland

Take the cable car up and hike over to the famous Aescher Guesthouse — a cliffside restaurant carved into the rock. We ate stinky cheese up there, something I'll never forget. The mountain hikes around the area are beautiful.

Stop 04

Venice

Veneto · Italy

Rick Steves said it and he was totally right — the most important part of exploring Venice is to get off the main circle that most people travel on. If you get off it, it's a completely different experience and so much better. Most of the crowds never wander from the main attractions.

Stop 05

Lake Como

Lombardy · Italy

We stayed in Bellagio — my favorite of the three villages. Worth exploring all of them by ferry. The lake is stunning from every angle and each village has its own feel. Don't skip Varenna.

Stop 06

Cinque Terre

Liguria · Italy

Five villages stacked on cliffs above the Mediterranean, connected by train and hiking trail. Each village has its own character. Walk the trail between them, eat seafood on the water, and don't rush it. One of the most distinctly Italian places I've ever been.

Stop 07 · Lazio, Italy

Rome.
Three hours. Somehow.

We did Rome in three hours. Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, the Colosseum — hit all three and moved on. Most people spend a week. That's probably the right call.

But if you're short on time, three hours is apparently doable. I have no idea how we pulled that off.

Stop 08 · The Highlight

Amalfi Coast.
The one that surprised us most.

We planned our hotel too last minute and were disappointed we couldn't get a room in Positano. Then we got up to Nocelle — a tiny village perched above Positano — and were completely blown away. The view was insane. Worth the compromise a hundred times over.

Below our window, locals would kick a soccer ball around a tiny square on top of the mountain — maybe a quarter acre — with the ocean hundreds of feet below. We went down and juggled with them. There was a little cliffside cafe with an accordion player and views that didn't make sense.

My sister and I stumbled onto part of the Path of the Gods hike without knowing what it was — we just jumped on a trail from Nocelle and kept going. Found out the name years later.

The driving around the Amalfi Coast is its own experience. Tiny roads, sheer drops, buses somehow squeezing past each other. Insane. We also ate at a great spot in Praiano on the water.

Stop 09

Civita di Bagnoregio

Lazio · Italy

An ancient village on a crumbling plateau, mostly abandoned, connected to the world by one footbridge. Genuinely eerie — it reminded me of Charn from the Narnia series. Old buildings, empty streets, ominous feeling. Really cool.

Stop 10

Florence

Tuscany · Italy

I'm not much of a city guy — but Florence genuinely surprised me. Doesn't feel like a big city. The Duomo, the Ponte Vecchio, and Piazzale Michelangelo (the viewpoint over the city) are all worth your time.

Stop 11 · The Unexpected Favorite

Lake Lucerne. The one that stayed with me.

We stopped in Flüelen and Brunnen on our drive around Lake Lucerne and found some amazing spots to take photos on the water. The drive around that lake was enough to make Switzerland one of my favorite places in the world — and honestly, all I've really done there is this and Ebenalp.

On one of our lake stops, our friend Marty — who joined us for a couple portions of the trip — somehow convinced my brother and I and the locals who were hanging around to jump into the freezing cold water. A memory I'll never forget.

The lake, the mountains, the water. I don't have a ton of time there. But it left a mark that's still there.

The Family
Europe Loop.

My brother went through every Rick Steves video and built us an itinerary.

Two weeks. One loop.