Innsbruck to northern Italy
 

I am going to be in Innsbruck this fall with some friends who have never traveled the region. One of the things they have talked about is a quick day trip from Innsbruck, over the Brenner pass, into Italy. It would be a weekday, either Thurs or Friday.

Any recommendations? Brixen, Bolanzo, or even over to Merano?

I know this area well, flying into Innsbruck and driving down to Bolzano a couple of times a year.

May be worth thinking whether you like cities or scenery. Bolzano has a small but picturesque town centre, and then a wander along the river (Adige) is good too. And you can take a cable car from the town centre up to Renon, but really up there you're going to see more of the same (mountains) as you do in Innsbruck. More here on the cable car:http://www.sii.bz.it/en/funivie-treno.php

I wouldn't bother with Bressanone or Merano.

Good thing with Innsbruck to Bolzano is that either by train or car it's really easy, and there are lots of car parks which are easy to find around Piazza Walther.

If you are going there by car and have GPS, I'd also recommend a quick trip down to Lago di Caldaro. It's a scenic lake with a great restaurant for seafood/shellfish. Make sure to pick up some wine (try a Lagrein - typical for this region) at any of the vineyard shops dotted along Strada Del Vino, which runs alongside the lake.

If you're into this sort of thing, the Archaeology Museum has the 5000 year old "otzi" guy they found in a glacier or something. And there's a decent Irish pub - the Temple - close to the university corner of the city.

I agree with moocherx in almost every account.
However, Brixen is pretty ... when you go now, you may have problems, the pope is on vacation there.
Regarding Bolzano:
-Go not too late, the street market closes at noon or so.
-Oetzi .. expect long ques.

Other nice villages are Klausen and Sterzing, if Bozen is too far..

Are you aware, that you probably can't enter Italy with a "nice rental car" (Merc. E & S, BMW 5 & 7, Audi 8, all Porsches).

And you do realize that South Tyrol is much more like Austria than it is like Italy? For the "real Italy" you'd need to go farther south, to Trento or Lake Garda.

Yes, that's something lots of people don't realise outside the German/Italian speaking world. Südtirol/Alto Adige is largely German-speaking, and most towns are better known by their German names than by the Italian ones. It's a beautiful part of the country, and worth visiting - but as the previous poster has said it doesn't feel very Italian.

Some details please. I just took a "nice rental car" from Switzerland to Innsbruck to Trent (Italy) without issue. But as I'm going from Garda to Trento or Bolzano tomorrow before going back to Innsbruck should I expect some kind of issue?

You will need to check your rental agreement to see if you should have taken the car to Italy.... some rental companies place restrictions on where they will allow you to take their cars, or what cars they will let you take to what countries. If your rental agreement has such restrictions then... well, I guess it's too late now to worry about it as you are in Italy already.

Stay 1 night in Bolzano (Bozen in German).

Check out the cool, relaxed old city, stay at the well-kept secret 4 Pts (my favorite 4 Pts in Europe), and drive to have a meal or coffee at Vigilius:

http://www.vigilius.it/website.php?id=/en/welcome.htm

Kick back, enjoy the fall colors, and feel like James Bond!

For my situation, insurance restrictions were an issue but countries on itinerary were not to my knowledge -- with regard to insurance, insurance coverage did not apply in Italy if the rental originated inside of Italy, but originating outside of Italy and it was covered.

I use National car rental (run by Denzel Drive in Innsbruck) and pick up from the airport. The only time I ever asked "do I need anything else to drive down to Bolzano?" the reply was "Of course not. Why?"

note... never asked again. don't like to tempt fate.

Thanks for the advice. Yes, I've been to Südtirol/Alto Adige several times, but the friends with whom I am traveling have never been to Italy. Here is their chance.

I called Sixt. I have a BMW X5 reserved....no issue about traveling to Italy. Thanks for the heads-up, tho!

Sixt normally gives 1k LH miles per rental as well!

I would say that is probably very true. We traveled from Kaprun to Lienz, just north of the Italian border, over a magnificent Alpine road....unfortunately not the Grossglockner that my husband wanted b/c it was snowing and I talked him out of it...then on to Innsbruck by the Gerlos Road, also spectacular. Lienz was definitely not Italian, but it wasn't exactly Austian either. We had lunch outside in a sunny square, and the people were more carefree and casual...it had a different feel to it. So your friends might get a little taste of something not entirely Austrian. As to the car rental, we had a BMW 5 series and Hertz had slapped a pale yellow decal on the upper left windshield (this was several years ago) that stated quite clearly the car could not be taken into Italy. Kind of hard to say "Oh, gosh, I didn't know." So this might no longer apply, be only a Hertz thing or you might want to check again. Sound like a great day trip!

You are 100% correct! Nobody will check at the border or so .... but if "something happens" with the car, the problems start. If and when GUWonder has one of the cars I mentioned, he should have read the fine-print of the contract.
Next, if it's paid with an American Express card the car is most probably not covert for CDW in Italy..... read the fine-print.

GUWonder:
BTW, what car did you get?

Good you called!

I had this from my last AVIS rental in MUC:

"....you probably can't enter Italy with a "nice rental car" (Merc. E & S, BMW 5 & 7, Audi 8, all Porsches)...."

Some time ago I had in MUC a (small) Mercedes A-Type from National: No driving in ITALY! I asked the agent to cross it out and initial it ... when I remember it correct, this note was also on that "green document".