5 Days in Northern Italy Itinerary

Five days is a quick trip, so I’ll make a suggestion to minimize your transportation time since every hour will count for you. There’s beautiful architecture and museums in Verona and Venice.

Fly to Milan and immediately take the train (2 1/2 hrs) to Lake Como - 2 nights
Take the train (3 hrs) to Verona - 2 nights. (Take a wine/food tour one day)
Take the train (1 hr) to Venice - 1 night

I omitted Cinque Terre and kept Lake Como because of the distance and time.

Here is what you are proposing

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Milan,+Metropolitan+City+of+Milan,+Italy/Parco+Nazionale+Gran+Paradiso,+Italy/Monterosso+al+Mare,+SP,+Italy/Parma,+Province+of+Parma,+Italy/Florence,+Metropolitan+City+of+Florence,+Italy/23829+Varenna,+Province+of+Lecco,+Italy/Venice,+Metropolitan+City+of+Venice,+Italy/@44.8327652,7.5710515,7z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m44!4m43!1m5!1m1!1s0x4786c1493f1275e7:0x3cffcd13c6740e8d!2m2!1d9.189982!2d45.4642035!1m5!1m1!1s0x47891f116149b481:0xb8f1d32359844c53!2m2!1d7.3244838!2d45.5220276!1m5!1m1!1s0x12d4ee1b7eca3573:0x3c02e4311a909756!2m2!1d9.6544077!2d44.1487718!1m5!1m1!1s0x47806ae154d4c32f:0x3a137735c90369a!2m2!1d10.3279036!2d44.801485!1m5!1m1!1s0x132a56a680d2d6ad:0x93d57917efc72a03!2m2!1d11.2558136!2d43.7695604!1m5!1m1!1s0x4784178c693424d9:0x1c0678057ae193e0!2m2!1d9.2899277!2d45.9893616!1m5!1m1!1s0x477eb1daf1d63d89:0x7ba3c6f0bd92102f!2m2!1d12.3155151!2d45.4408474!3e0

Not my idea of realistic for 5 days

Thanks for the support Joe! You really seemed to have mastered google maps. Obviously everything I mentioned is not realistic to do...looking for advice on where to go and not go. I am interested in Piedmont specifically for wine, but would be willing to go somewhere else. Not so interested in Verona the city but could be a good alternative (thanks Jean). The outdoors are more interesting for me. Looking for specific tips. Thank you.

OK, here is something specific

As you arrive 'early' in the day in Milan, go directly to CT, then Florence and end in Venice. Allocate your 5 days among those places to suit your interests. Any more than that looks to me, to be a 'mad dash'

A stop to see Pisa's leaning structure, on the way from CT to Florence could be considered.

It certainly was not my intent to be derisive, and I apologize if my earlier post came across that way. I just had the impression (seemingly incorrect) that you hadn't visualized just how spread out all the places on your 'wish list' are.

PS-Edit- I chose Varenna ( town on Lake Como) not Verona. Needed town name to get google to plot the destinations

I don't know exactly how much time you have; are you flying out of Venice on Day 5 or Day 6? And at what time of day do you depart?

I assume you're flying out of Venice because you want to see Venice. So I think you need to spend your last 3 nights in Venice. That will give you two full days there and perhaps a few hours. To keep transportation time to an absolute minimum, I'd choose my other overnight stop from among Verona, Vicenza and Padua--probably either Verona or Padua since Vicenza is smaller and could be a day-trip from one of the other two.

I really wouldn't want to fool with a rental car on this trip. Trains run frequently between Milan and Venice.

Are you flying into Malpensa or Linate?

This is what happens if you try to go to the Cinque Terre and Venice on the same short trip: Taking a train from Milan-Malpensa to Vernazza in the Cinque Terre would take at least 4 hr. 27 min. and could be quite a bit longer if you're unlucky about when you're able to step onto the train. ViaMichelin--thought to be optimistic--estimates a driving time of 3 hr. 33 min. That doesn't include time spent at the rental-car counter, getting lost, or looking for parking. And if you're arriving on an overnight flight, you shouldn't be trying to drive to the Cinque Terre, anyway.

Then 1 or 2 days later you need to head to Venice--another 5+ hours on the train. The trains are fine; it's just that you have so little time, I can't imagine you look forward to spending about 10 hours of your short visit sitting on trains. By comparison, if you select your stops from among the places on the Milan-Venice rail line, you'll have only 2 hr. 25 minutes on trains--gaining essentially a full day of sightseeing time. That's gold on a short trip like this.

Thanks Arcavan! We have five travel days, so fly on the 6th.

Two options.

Day
1. Arrive Milan. To Lake Como
3. To Parma
4. To Venice (late train)
6. Depart Venice

Day
1. Arrive Milan. To Cinque Terre
3. To Florence
4. To Venice (late train)
6. Depart Venice

I don't know anything about Piedmont but your other locations are for the most part not good for car driving.
Peidmont and the national Park you mention though is probably best seen by car so you have a bit of a logistical issue to work out I think.

Car is of no use in the Cinque Terre and parking is very limited.

Lake Como much faster to train to Como and take a boat up the lake to the other towns than drive. Driving is quite hairy from what I recall and would take you longer and again be left with no where to park at the popular little towns on the lake.

Venice obviously has no cars so you can drive to the edge of town and return you car then as your last stop but again may just be easier to train there.

Parma, Florence, Bologna and other cities all have ZTL concerns so generally cars and Italian cities are a bad mix.

Not sure you have enough time for all of your plans overall, many on this forum would spend 5 nights in Venice so with 5 days total and trying to cover the country east to west it will be a fast paced trip filled with a few one night stops.

I will echo what others have said: 5 days is extremely, extremely short. Are you country hopping? I understand the reason people do this, but I dunno, not my style of travel. You can spend a month in Italy and barely scratch the surface.

Anyway, since you're flying into Milan and out of Venice, I would recommend for sanity's sake, to spend 2 days in Milan and 3 days in Venice. We had 3 nights in Venice back in 2015, and I could have used 4-5 more.