Driving to Italy - avoiding Switzerland

[omniflow]

I'm planning a trip to Italy, exact destination TBD but for planning purposes I'm assuming Arezzo. I'd like to completely avoid driving through Switzerland and also minimise the amount of time spent in France. It looks like crossing Austria via Innsbruck and then the Brenner pass is one route. There's another pass to the west of the Brenner that looks a lot more interesting.

I need to be Arezzo around 6:00pm on the Saturday, and the starting point would be near Le Touquet at 8:00am on the Friday. My thinking is that if I make somewhere in Austria for the overnight stop on the Friday, then I should be able to take an interesting route over the mountains on the Saturday morning, leaving the Saturday afternoon to do the rest of the Italy leg.

Or should I just stick to the more direct route through Switzerland, which I have done several times before.

I'd be keen to hear of any interesting routes from Austria to Italy, and also about the practicalities of the France -> Austria leg, where I would be looking for a route that's as efficient as possible.

I also have the option of abandoning dinner plans on the Thursday night and getting 3 or 4 hours into the journey on the Thursday PM.

[omniflow]

The plan was shelved for this year as I didn't manage to buy a new car in time. We're now going to Crete instead - flying.

However car is now bought (but won't be collected until we return from Crete), so a road trip is on the cards for next spring. Timings will be different, but I definitely fancy visiting Innsbruck and I will be looking for the best driving route through Germany to get there. Plenty of time for the planning now.