French & Italian Riviera

It is too much you are not taking me with you. Bravissimo, per certo. Report. Back.

Five nights in Nice is perfect. You won’t run out of places to day trip to.
Do you hike? If so, you may need four nights in the Cinque Terre or take day trips to other places nearby.
You need a minimum of four nights in Florence and that includes a day trip to Siena by direct bus (1h 15m).

@marypat

Great! So we’ve been to CT & Florence before. Also Sienna. This time, we have a well traveled 3 year old joining us. We live in Colorado, so hiking is a must. The goal of this trip is beach time, hiking, and just wandering to playgrounds for the little one, and eating! We knew we’d need at least 4 nights in CT to explore a bit more and maybe do a day trip to one of the less visited towns than the 5. Any suggestions there?

For Florence, my goal was to head to Bologna or Parma this time as a day trip for food!

Would you almost recommend we spend 4 nights in Nice, 5 in Italian riviera, and 4 in Florence knowing our interests now- or keep as is?

Thanks for your reply!!

I personally would keep the 5 nights in Nice, a new location for you.

Perfect. I've been wanting to do that exact schedule for a while. I got to Nice and Florence but missed CT the last three trips over.

@Andrea

I like where your head is at- good point!

Hi Nicole,
My first trip to FR was the riviera where I spent six nights and wasn’t bored. The beaches are better than the Cinque Terre except for Monterosso. I would stick with five nights in the riviera and no more than four in the Cinque Terre. Good day trips in the riviera are Villefranch-sur-Mer, Monaco, Cap Ferrat, Eze-le Village and Antibes.
Hiking between Monterosso and Vernazza is challenging with steep steps if hiking from Vernazza to Monterosso with no handrails. It’s not as steep if coming from Monterosso. If you take this hike, you need a day to do it even though it won’t take all day. You’ll have plenty of time to hang out in all five villages with four nights and easy day trip options include Santa Margherita Ligure and Porto Venere.
Do your homework on where to eat in Bologna. I stopped in Bologna once while enroute from Venice to Florence and was underwhelmed. People like this place but I dropped in expecting more and was disappointed.

Is CT considered the Italian Riviera? I think the towns just east of the France-Italy border are considered the Italian Riviera.

Nevertheless, for day trips from CT, people go to Porto Venere or more NW of CT towards Portofino, Santa Margherita Ligure, Camogli.

You can get to Portovenere by ferry. Depending on how hardcore you are about hiking, you can go up to the fort overlooking the city but there are more challenging hikes for elevation in CT.

There is also some trails between Riomaggiore and Porto Venere but I think those are long hikes so it wouldn't be a way to get to PV.

They offer some guided hikes or at least they used to over some of the CT villages, fairly nominal price.

There is also a very scenic path between Portofino and Santa Margherita Ligure but it's mostly flat so again, it depends on how much of a workout you want. When you get to Portofino, you can get more of a workout by climbing up to Castello Brown for views over the port.

If that's not enough, you can hike to San Fruttuoso or take a ferry there, though beware of the ferry schedules. There are also ferries towards Camogli. Not sure if you can hike from San Fruttuoso to Camogli. But you can take the ferry to the SW tip of the promontory and then hike from there to Camogli, where you can take the train back to CT.

Is CT considered the Italian Riviera?

According to Wikipedia it is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Riviera#:~:text=Its%20mild%20climate%20draws%20an,San%20Fruttuoso%2C%20and%20Sestri%20Levante.

@AMann

We like to hike.

@Mary Pat

Thank you so much! I think we will stick to 5 nights in Nice then. I’m glad I posted to ask.

We did Vernazza to Monterosso hike in 2018 and then took the train back. It was wonderful!

Santa Margherita Ligure looks like a perfect addition to the trip, I am going to research it more.

That’s interesting with Bologna, but I’ll say we had a similar situation with our first meal in Rome- just assumed every meal would be perfect- ha!

We spent two days completing the CT hikes then did a day trip by ferry south to Portovenere which we enjoyed.
We have been to Santa Margherita Ligure several times and love it there. Last time we were in Nice we stayed two weeks. It’s a great base for day trips plus it’s a wonderful small city.
Between Nice and Genoa consider stopping overnight in charming Noli. It has it all, nice beachfront, medieval quarter and a castle on a hill. We stayed in the converted Bishop’s Palace,Palazzo Vescovile which also features a Michelin starred restaurant.

Missing Saint Tropez, Sainte Maxime Eze Menton + calanque around Marseille so hopefully you can visit one of these while in Nice!

There are a number of potential hikes/walks available to you as well in the Nice area -- you can do the coastal walks (sentier littorel) around cap d'antibes and around cap ferret. There are also coast routes available up Mont Boron/Fort Alban and up from Eze to the Tete du Chien. You can also take the train des merveilles (in season) and take day hikes from some of the border hill towns. If you have a car, of course more trailheads open up, including the hikes around the massif de l'esteral between Theole-sur-Mer and St. Raphael

You might also enjoy taking a ferry to Ste Marguerite Island and exploring a more untouched island (the other island, St Honorat, is a bit more touristic with the monastery, vineyard and tower.