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1 Night in Cinque Terre 3 Nights in Castellina in Chianti Itinerary Recommendation

Posted by (Philadelphia, PA) on

My wife and I are going to Italy for 9 days in late September/early October and are struggling to finalize our Tuscany itinerary. We are not 100% sure that a night in CT is worth it, but do already have a nice air B&B booked there. We are taking to train to CT from Genoa after flying in from Amsterdam. We were hoping to get some feedback on the itinerary below.

Sunday, 9/29 - Arriving in CT
Arriving in Riomaggiore in CT around 130-2pm from Amsterdam
Will spend the day hiking, eating, and drinking in no particular order!

Monday, 9/30 - Morning in CT, driving to Chianti
Will spend the morning exploring CT more, pick up a car in Spezia around noon and start the drive to Chianti.
Stop at Lucca en route to our agriturismo in Castellina in Chianti

Tuesday, 10/1 - Drive to san gimignano, volterra, and siena
Nearly 3 hours in driving time, too much?
Will explore each place by foot

Wednesday, 10/2 - Explore Chianti region
Spend a lazy morning at the agriturismo.
lunch and a tour at Antinori vineyard
nice dinner somewhere near lodging

Thursday, 10/3 - off to Rome
Not sure what time we're leaving yet. May have time in the morning for one more Tuscany activity

Posted by
15791 posts

IMHO? No, you don't have enough time to do this one night justice. Daylight at the end of Sept. will be short (sunset at 7:07 PM) so by the time you'd get in and settled into a hotel (you don't mention where your B&B is?) you don't have many daylight hours left. That's also assuming your flight gets in on time and how long it takes you to get through immigration, if coming from outside the E.U, and if you're checking luggage.

Sunrise on 9/30 isn't until 7:17 AM. If you're going to be packed up, checked out and to La Spezia by noon, this doesn't give you much time to "exploring CT more". As you can't depend on weather, should you end up there on during a day of rain then the visit you anticipate will be a disappointment. I'd spend that night somewhere else.

Posted by
11127 posts

Too much travel for too little time. Stay in CT two nights to give you one full day or skip it. CT to Castellina isn’t the problem, rather too short a CT stay.
Touring from Castellina. If you do go to the CT, stop off in Volterra en route to Castellina instead of backtracking from Castellina.
Give Siena enough time. We always give it a day. Drive SR 22( astellina is onit) and visit the wonderful Chianti towns such as Greve, Panzano, Radda, Gaiole.

Posted by
3112 posts

My initial thought was to say "too little time for a visit to Cinque Terre," but then I got to thinking. If you're locked into flying into Genoa and your intent is to break up the trip from Genoa to Chianti, then the stop in Cinque Terre could make sense. Keep in mind that you'll only have time to hike the afternoon of your arrival, have dinner and a relaxing evening, and explore the town where you're staying for a short time the next morning. If your intent is anything other than to break up the trip from Genoa to Chianti, I would skip Cinque Terre and either pick up a rental car in Genoa for the drive to Chianti or try to fly into Pisa, Florence or Bologna airports, all of which are much closer to your Chianti destination.

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