I just returned from a trip to Europe. First I spent about a week in Austria, which has very restrictive rules. I didn't try to fly, especially in the bigger cities like Vienna.
I spent 3-4 days in a small village near Salzburg overlooking a beautiful lake. Unfortunately it rained heavily so even if I was going to try it, the weather didn't cooperate. But I took a cog wheel train up to a place called Shafsberg, which overtakes 3 beautiful lakes from a mountain peak.
I would have killed to fly up there (about 6,000 feet above sea level). I saw someone briefly launch a Mavic drone. Nobody accosted him.
Then I drove to Italy, first in the Dolomites mountain area. I was able to fly a few times there, mostly on top of mountain peaks reached by cable car. One place I flew was over a reservoir and after I flew, I saw a construction helicopter of some kind set down some heavy construction material, right where I launched and landed. But I didn't see any restrictions for that area so I'm just glad my timing avoided that.
Finally, I flew a couple of times over Lake Garda. I just made sure to launch and land away from crowds and elevate high, so it wouldn't be heard or seen as easily. As it turns out, I like taking panos, both 360 and 180 panos, so those work well from higher altitudes.
Technically, I didn't maintain LOS or comply with the ceiling for drones in Italy, which is only like 70 meters or 210 feet. Again, the strategy was to minimize people gawking and possibly bringing attention to cops.
Now drone laws in Italy seem way less restrictive than in Switzerland, though you don't want to fly over those picturesque Italian towns with 400 year churches. In fact, there are stories of people getting hefty fines for flying over Venice or Florence which always have big crowds of people.
A lot of these towns are dense, so there isn't always a lot of open space, especially one away from trees, buildings, power lines, which might cause issues when you try to land. So go outside the villages (but not bigger cities) and be content to photograph and film landscapes, which are always picturesque, rather than flying close enough over towns to really get good photos and videos of the famous architecture.
