My husband I want to take a short separate vacation from Iceland since Icelandair offers a free stopover. We love nature, so whichever area has a nicer view of the Alps would be nice. I would also love to see nice city architecture, which I know we can see in either of these cities (but does any of them blow the others out of the water?). Preferably we would like to rent a car to get between each place, and stay a day and a half in one place, and 2 days in another (since we want to spend more time in Iceland). But I think from Milan-Lugano we might take a train, since it seems like there aren't many interesting places to see on the way. I say that because if we go to Munich/Salzburg, I'd like to make a pit stop and see Dachau.
I like how Lugano is very picture-esque, but it seems a bit expensive and that there won't be too much to do. We're on a budget, so we're also taking that into consideration.
I have always wanted to go to Germany, but since I work with the Air Force, I may go there someday since there are bases over there... but Salzburg is tempting to make a side trip to.
Sorry for all my rambling! Just want to give you a good idea of our interests and get as much advice as possible.