How to Road Trip from Lucerne to Pisa to Vernazza

After our one night stopover in Lucerne, we headed out for a full travel day, which included 5 hours in the mini bus and an hour train ride to our final destination, Vernazza, Italy.  I have to say that renting a car and doing a little driving was such a fun adventure.  You get to see things that you would never see otherwise. Here’s how to road trip from Lucerne to Pisa to Vernazza!

Swiss Alps

One of the highlights of the trip for me was driving through the Swiss Alps, and specifically through the St. Gotthard Pass.  We hit just shy of 7,000 feet and the views were absolutely unforgettable.

As we were ascending the mountain on the Pass, we decided we had to get out and take a few photos and touch the snow of the Swiss Alps. It was crazy to be in 80 degree weather and touching the snow on the side of the mountain.  No, that is not a tank top, I have obnoxious tan lines in these photos!  🙂



We picked mountain wildflowers…


About halfway along the St. Gotthard Pass, there is a little bar/food stand on the side of a cliff.  Who knew you could purchase brats with a mini Swiss flag on the side of the mountain?!

Entering Italy

The rest of the road trip took us through parts of Italy, and around Milan. We saw little towns nestled into mountains, very old farmhouses, huge Carrera marble factories and storage (which was very cool for me to see), and we stopped off for some espresso at a rest stop. Only in Italy do they have $20,000 espresso machines at the rest stops!! 

Leaning Tower of Pisa

It was finally time to reach Pisa, Italy, see the Leaning Tower. This is where we would be dropping our car off at the airport as well. It was a long day of travel but there was no way we were going to be in Pisa and not see the Leaning Tower. We pulled up, parked the mini bus near a bunch of other mini buses , ran to the tower, snapped some photos, ran back to the mini bus, and drove off. I think it was world record time that any four people have ever seen the Leaning Tower! In person, it wasn’t leaning as much as I thought it would be! It was still very cool to see, and such a bonus on our road trip adventure. It was pretty clear that there was not much else to do in Pisa. If you ever plan a trip to see the Leaning Tower, stay somewhere else and take a train in to see it!

Catch a Train to Monterosso

We finally said good-bye to the mini bus and hoped on a train to Monterosso, Italy. Here is the main train hub in Cinque Terre. We took another short train ride from Monterossa to Vernazza and got settled in our rooms. After grabbing a pizza and some drinks, we enjoyed dinner on some rocks in a cove off the Mediterranean.

I’d say it was the perfect ending to a wonderful day of adventure. It was a day I will never forget. Stay tuned for pictures from our time in Cinque Terre! XO