Doors to Italy: the second one is the Brenner.

The Brenner is the most heavily used crossing of the Alps and the least mysterious. Munich to Verona is a direct train; every German traveller knows the pass, and almost none of them get off before Lake Garda. Door number two is about what happens when you do.

Doors to Italy publishes one border crossing per month, each framed for the travellers who actually use it. The first door opened in Carinthia in May. This is the second, and it serves the largest audience in the program: Germany, plus western Austria.

The crossing

Since the end of 2024 the Munich–Italy service has been run with ÖBB/DB Railjets: roughly every two hours through the day over the pass via Innsbruck, restaurant car included, with two trains a day continuing to Venice and two to Bologna. Brennero, at the top of the pass, is the first Italian station — and like Tarvisio, it is a door, not a destination.

The slow option is part of the point. An ÖBB regional climbs from Innsbruck to Brennero in well under an hour; from there Trenitalia regionals run down the Isarco valley to Bolzano and on to Trento and Verona. It costs little, needs no booking, and turns the descent into a route rather than a transfer.

Where the Italia in Tour pass kicks in

Later than you would like. The Italia in Tour pass excludes the Autonomous Province of Bolzano entirely, so from Brennero down the Isarco valley you are on ordinary point-to-point tickets — which on these regionals are cheap anyway. And there is a second catch: the Valsugana line from Trento, the one that serves our first stop, is also on the exclusion list. The pass earns its keep from Verona onwards, where Modena, Arezzo and Orvieto are all regional territory.

The trunk, in honest segments

Trento and the Valle dei Mòcheni. One night. From Trento, the Valsugana line and the valley bus climb to the Bersntol, the German language island where a Bavarian dialect older than standard German is still spoken. The door theme in miniature: cross a border, find the border never quite closed.

Verona. Two nights, on the left bank: Veronetta, San Zeno, Castel San Pietro at golden hour — and the Arena as architecture rather than as a queue.

Modena. One night. The regional along the Po plain does the work. Balsamico cellars, the market, and dinner where the Emilians actually eat.

Arezzo. Two nights. Piero della Francesca, the antiques market if the first weekend aligns, and Tuscany without the Florence crowds.

Orvieto. One night, ending on the cliff. From Orvieto Scalo the funicular climbs to the Duomo; Rome is an hour away when the route lets go.

Seven days, five stops. The route page has the stop-by-stop version, with nights, notes and hotel links, and opens directly in the trip planner.

What this door does not cover

It does not cover South Tyrol and the Dolomites: the pass exclusion makes the Bolzano province a doorframe rather than a room, and mountains of that order deserve their own coverage, not a paragraph in passing. It does not cover Lake Garda, though the trunk passes within sight of it — that is the point. And it does not cover Lombardy, for the same reason no door does: Trenord is off the pass and Milan does not need our help.

What comes next

Published alongside this door: the Karst, the second Trieste door, for travellers coming up from Ljubljana and Zagreb. Next in the program: the Côte d’Azur at Ventimiglia, September 2026. The full program is on the doors page.

Editorial standards. This piece is not sponsored. ÖBB, DB, Slovenian Railways and Trenitalia have no commercial relationship with undertourism.eu. Where route and destination pages carry affiliate links, they are labelled as such.