4 days between Milan & Rome

Do I understand you correctly that you intend to cover Milan, Rome, Piza, Lucca and the Cinque Terra in 5 days? You will spend half you time traveling and the other half trying to catch your breath. In 5 days you could just barely see the high spots of Rome much less see any of the other 7 cities. You need to reconsider your plans.

We aren't really interested in spending time in Milan or Rome on this trip. Landing in Milano allows us to move from north to south and leave from Roma, a necessity based on airline tickets. Our interest area is in the smaller cities and towns, wines, food, and people. Given that, where would you suggest we stay for our 4-day mini-taste of Italy?

Hm, since you put it that way, how about spending all 4 days in the CT?

Lucca is nice and well-located, but I'm not sure I would want to stay there for four days. Siena or Orvieto are great but a bit far for what you want to do. Someone else may have a better idea, but to do what you want to do, I think I would either base solely in the CT or in Lucca.

Thank you Liz. I looked at Kent's train schedules too. Just a nice stop in CT may be perfect for this trip. We'll have to go to Rome on the 26th to be certain we can make our flight, so that really cuts into our Italian time. This quick stop is to take advantage of the few days we have left of our vacation time after a 14-day cruise of the Greek Islands. CT will be perfect. Thanks!

We did kind of the opposite of what you are planning. After our 7 night cruise, from Civitavecheccia we trained to the CT for 3 nights, then stayed 2 nights in Milan, with a day trip to Lake Como. Flew out of Linate to Frankfurt, then back to SF. So yes...the 4 days extra will work.

I would just point out that at the end of October you may have beautiful weather in CT, but you may not. One more consideraton.