I'm planning to attend a conference in Grenoble, France next year, and I am looking to travel some personal travel before or after to explore Italy and possibly Switzerland. I have not gotten to travel much in Europe, and Italy is my first choices for my "bucket list" of countries (hopefully I have many many more years of traveling though). It seems as if Grenoble is not far from the Italian border, and cities like Turin and Milan are realistic travel opportunities for an extended trip.

The conference only lasts 3 days and will likely be the 24-26 of Aug, or 31-2, 2012. I am a very budget conscious traveler, and I have a bit of flexibility to allow more cost effective travel. My husband will be joining me. I travel to see things, and he travels to eat things. ;-] He is the definition of foodie, and works with international cheese importers as his job. As such, the Piedmont region of Italy with its Alps cheeses and truffles are a huge draw for him, and me, as well.

Since we are so budget conscious, my perception is that the most expensive costs will be traveling. Particularly flights into/out of Europe. While there is still plenty of time, I know planning early may be advantageous financially. However, there are about a million combinations that I have configured between options of cities, and there are too many to manually go in and "test out". I was hoping I could have some feedback here as to how to go about deciding airport arrival/departures, and then at a later date I'll probably make specific posts in the specific forums for Italy/France/Switzerland/Rail Europe etc when I get to that point.

I would venture to guess we can do the trip in 10 days. Likely a weekend on either end of a 5 day work week. The only requirement for when I have to be at a specific location is in Grenoble, on the one weekend (TBD). We could travel before and end the trip in Grenoble, or visa versa. We live in PA, and could easily travel out of Pittsburgh or Philly, however, I have found it easiest in the past to drive to DC or JFK to fly out internationally (few hour drive, have friends/family, less layover, etc). So we are flexible with our departure city.

I have seen Paris, and would prefer to visit other areas of France (southern/central). My first thoughts for travel were to fly into either Lyon or Geneva, Sw. as they are the two closest major airports to Grenoble. Spend the weekend at the conference, then take the rail (probably 2 or 3 country pass) to Turin and possibly Venice and fly out of Italy back to the US.

I would LOVE to see Venice, but I realize it may not make logical sense to do it this trip. My husband's idol cheese maker, Rolf Beeler, has cheese caves near Zurich and as such might be an interesting alternative to Venice, if flights in/out of Zurich are financially the cheapest. We are flexible to weight that heavier on our agenda. We would like to spend some time in/around southern central France, Dordogne and the castles, etc, appealed to us. As for Italy, initially I considered Milan, but the consensus here seems as if that is not a recommended stop, (neither of us are really fashionistas) We don't need to do a "big city" and smaller, rustic/rural/non-tourist cities are preferred. Rome/Sicily(my island of heritage ;-])/Florence will wait for another trip.

Summary of questions:
1) Financially is it cost prohibitive to fly in and out of different cities in Europe, Would it make sense to fly into france and out of venice, or pick a central location fly in and out and make a "loop" (i.e., zurich/geneva).

2) Specifically which airlines/airports are the ones I should focus my search on?

3) Cities in France or Italy that aren't ones I've mentioned that are nearby/suggested stops? Or ones currently noted that should be nixed?

4) Any and all constructive feedback is welcome ;-]

Thank you in advance for your feedback! Sorry for my long windedness ;-]