Amalfi Coast vs Cinque Terre vs French Riviera?

If you are going to Modena, then it does not make sense to go to the French Riviera. It looks close on the map, but it takes a while.
You have 3 main choices I think:
- one of the Italian Lakes: Lake Garda would work well from Modena, but I do not know the area well enough to recommend a spot.
- 5 Terre for sure, but might be very busy and not exactly "relaxing" so you could also look at places further west along the coast, such as Camogli or Rapallo
- Adriatic coast: scenery is less dramatic, but it could work for R&R, there are some nice spots.
Senigallia has a three-Michelin star restaurant where I have never been, but it could be of interest to you.

The Amalfi coast is stunning too, but it involves more travel time and can be quite a bit hotter in August.
The latter half of August is when all of Italy seems to be on vacation, so yes, resorts will be busy, but it will also add to the atmosphere!

I would go for Positano. You said you’ve already found a reasonable hotel there.
Fly fromParis (hopefully Orly) to Naples (check SkyScanner for flights), then you can take a bus direct from Naples airport, or take a taxi down to the port and take a boat across, which is fun.

The buses are probably crazy along the coast that time of year, but you can relax in Positano, and if you feel like a day trip take the ferry over to Capri or Amalfi or whatever.

We went and stayed in Positano for our honeymoon (albeit in September), and it was wonderful. And Italian food is better value and better than French . There, I said it.

To keep it simple, I would begin in Rome. Then head to Modena. Take a local flight from Bologna over to Nice. After spending some time in Nice, take the train from Nice up to Paris. I think it was around 5 hours. There’s a lot to do, or you can easily relax, too. Plus there’s some unique areas to see while being in that gorgeous location. I stayed in Nice for five nights in 2019 and would love to go back!

If you end up just in France, Nice at one time belonged to Italy, so there’s an Italian section of town where I ate a few times. Also, I had a wonderful lasagna at Menton while roaming the gorgeous hilly old section of colorful buildings. It gave me some of the feel of being in Italy while still staying in France that trip.

To keep things simple, I would stay in France just in case restrictions are introduced for travel between countries.

I would head to La Rochelle on the west coast of France, which will be busy, but not as bad as the Riviera. The weather should be good, but not as hot as Italy. There’s plenty to see and there are boat trips out to some of the islands. Visit Re or Oleron for the locally caught oysters. La Rochelle’s food market is sublime. Day trips along the coast or to the pretty Venise Verte (called green Venice because of the labyrinth of small canals fringed by honey stone houses with colourful gardens - take a boat trip from Coulon).

I wouldn’t go to CT in August. Travelling to Italy from France is going to take the best part of a day door to door in each direction.

Thanks for all the input so far! Jennifer, I have considered spending the entire time in France so as to eliminate any border crossing this year. But, if I'm being truly honest with myself, my heart is in Italy and I think I will be a bit crushed not to go at all. I LOVE France (we've been twice), and I'm sure we would have an incredible time with three full weeks in the country, but after having to cancel an Italy trip last Spring and now having it in my head as an option I'm having a hard time letting go of the idea. That being said though everything is on the table so I do appreciate any and all recommendations at this point!

Also, to clarify dates: we're planning to depart on August 4, so arriving in Europe on August 5. We're scheduled to meet my mom at CDG on the morning of 8/23, so as of now we have the night of 8/22 booked at CitizenM at CDG so that we can easily hop over and meet them at the TGV station the next morning. So, we basically have from the 5-21/22ish to play with.

Just south of the Cinque Terre, I would go to Portovenere.
If in the Cinque Terre, I would return to Hotel Puerto Roca on the water in Monterosso, away from the crowds.
We have spent a lot of time in Nice and love it. It is perfect for day tripping on public transportation.

Suki, thank you--unfortunately the hotel you mentioned in Monterosso has no availability. Do you have any lodging recommendations for Nice?

I personally find American and Caribbean (well, Hawaiian for people from Seattle, maybe) beaches to be a superior experience to most European beaches I've seen. Of course, this is very much an opinion. I also agree that it is safer not to change countries on a "last-minute" trip this month. For relaxation (if not budget expenses) I suspect the French Riviera is a good choice. (Haven't been there.)

Honestly, I found the pebble beach and cold water of Positano in May (our month) to be unappealing. The limited square footage also affects your feeling of .... leisure. (I'm referring to your husband's request.)

Check how many stair steps there are between your Positano hotel and the beach.

the problem with Nice and most of the French Riviera meeting the needs of your husband is that very few of the beaches are sand. Most of them are either large sharp sand, sharp gravel, or gravel, or what the English call Shingle.

Much of the beaches are privately owned and charge, and then charge for a lounger or umbrella. Some of them have trucked in sand but it doesn't go far into the water.

There is a sandy (manmade) public beach in Monaco, but I think that the access is still through a club, at the very east end of Monaco. Antibes has a natural sandy beach, and I think I remember one of the coves on Cap Ferrat has a sandy beach but a fisherman could cast a hook further than it is wide.

I see that you're from Seattle (!), but I wonder if you need air conditioning in Europe this summer? I thought of the question because our stay in the sweet (but moderately busy, and moderately British, if you can imagine such a thing) French beach town of Dinard. Our family owned hotel on the beach was quiet, and the relatively narrow sand beach not so busy. (Huge sand beach width next town of St. Malo.) But we had to take our car to Target (?) on the highway to buy a fan.

You can daytrip easily if you have a car, or study the bus schedules if you don't. This is not a "chic" place like the Cote D'Azur, but it's hardly the only nice Atlantic beach town in western France! Maybe take this as a stimulus to think outside the box you have sketched out.

I suppose maybe I should clarify my husband's request--we really aren't huge beach people in the sense that we don't necessarily need a gorgeous sandy beach to be happy. He just wants to be by the water for a time. He enjoys things like kayaking, maybe we can take some sort of sunset boat cruise, that sort of thing, but we definitely don't need or expect Caribbean-esque beaches. I think his request was probably mostly meant to prevent me from over-planning and keeping us in cities as I am wont to do and also he wants to go somewhere we haven't been before (we've been to Florence, Bologna and Venice--any of which I would happy return to). Sort of leaning toward Cinque Terre at the moment, with an acceptance that it will be busy, but still have an open mind.

From Modena you can take a train to Monterosso, but will have to connect at the Milano Centrale station (5h 30m). To get to Rome from Monterosso, you’ll have to connect at least once taking 5h 30m.
From Rome it looks like you can take a direct bus to Positano (4h 30m) operated by Marozzi: https://www.rome2rio.com/map/Rome/Positano#r/Bus/s/0. Otherwise, you must take a non-stop train from the Roma Termini station to the Napoli Centrale station (1h 15m). From there you can take a taxi to Porto Napoli and take a ferry to Sorrento (45-minutes). From Sorrento you can take a ferry to Positano (2h).
To get to Nice you can fly non-stop from Rome on Easyjet and Alitalia. Easyjet is cheaper, but Alitalia allows you to carry an additional item. You can take a direct train to Paris (6h 15m). There’s also an overnight train departing at 7:16p on Aug 22 arriving the next morning at 6:55a. That’s what I would do and rent a cabin for two to sleep in.
A good day trip from Nice is to hop on a direct train to Villefranche-sur-Mer (15-minutes). Monaco and Antibes are 30-minutes by direct train.

If you wish to stay in France on the French Riviera I would recommend the Welcome Hotel in Villefranche sur Mer. You can get a room with a balcony overlooking the harbor and it is a short walk to a lovely shale beach in Villefranche. It is a nicer beach than the Nice beaches. Villefranche sur Mer has a charming waterfront and bus and train service to Nice, Monaco, and St. Jean Cap Ferrat as well as other Cote D'Azur towns. It is one of our favorite places.

Thanks so much to all of you for your help and suggestions!! We ended up settling on something that wasn't even on my radar when I asked the question... after flying into Naples and spending a night there to recoup, we'll be catching the ferry to Ischia and spending 5 nights on the island.