Amalfi Coast versus Cinque Terre

A few questions please. Are you flying internationally into Rome from the U.S.? If yes, on which carrier? Do you intend to exit the same way and on the same carrier? Or, will a connecting flight work? Your thoughts please.

Another question would be whether you want to see lots of sights or are more content to enjoy the local life and outdoors. The Amalfi Coast has a lot more to offer in terms of sights, but Cinque Terre offers more just soaking up the great outdoors.

Mind you, I have never been to either, but I'll be going to both in just a few weeks!

Larry and Leslie are asking good questions. What Larry is getting at is: the Cinque Terre is north of Rome (pretty far north) while the Amalfi is two to three hours south of Rome. You talked about eliminating backtracking but it is not possible to do that if you are both flying into and flying out of Rome.

We are flying United (fregquest flyer miles)to and from Italy. Would like to fly "open jaw" so that we can see more of Italy. We would like to spend at least three days in Rome to see Vatican City and several other sites. Mostly would like to enjoy the local hospitality and people.

We just returned from Italy on May 25, and have stayed and visited both Cinque Terre and Sorrento / Amalfi coast.

Cinque Terre is especially great if you like combining hiking with spectacular views of nature and wonder.

While Amalfi Coast is also amazingly beautiful, the actual view is mostly drive-through. Although if you stay at Sorrento, the hill-top view of the Naples Bay and Mt. Vesuvius is worth a trip alone.

My wife and I picked C-T and Sorrento among the four places we would like to go back to - the other two are Dolomites, and Lake Como.

Cindy, my wife and I have done exactly that. We flew United on Points. We had to call them directly instead of trying to book online. They flew us from Sacramento to LAX arriving there at about 2:30pm. They then put us on a Lufthansa flight (their partner) to Frankfurt. Our flight left about 6:10pm and we flew through the night arriving in Frankfurt at 2:00PM the next day (10.5hr. flight). We then flew from Frankfurt to Florence. To fly open jaw, we chose to exit from Zurich. We went no further south in Italy than Assisi. Our visit of northern Italy (Florence, CT, Venice) was superb as was our visit to the Interlaken and the Berner Oberland. From Zurich, we were on United all the way home via Washington Dulles. If you fly into Rome, United might have a different airline path getting you there and back. Flying home, you may have to either go back to Rome, go to Zurich or Paris to pick up a United only flight or fly Lufthansa to Frankfurt from most any airport in Italy to pick up the United flight from there. Give them a call. I found them quite helpful. BIG HINT. Spend the extra 40,000 points and go business class. BC on Lufthansa was superb. Much better than U.S. airlines.

I hope I haven't been too confusing. Perhaps you can identify where you intend to end up before exiting Europe.

Cindy, I've been to both locations and hope to return to both VERY soon. Which area to visit on this trip will probably depend on where else you're going to be? If you're planning on primarily seeing Rome and Florence or other parts of the north, then the Cinque Terre would be the logical choice (ESPECIALLY as your trip is only 15 days! On the other hand, if you're going to be mostly touring Rome, Pompeii or other parts of the south, then the Amalfi Coast would be more logical.

Your plan to fly "open jaw" is great (again, especially with such a short duration trip).

Good luck and happy travels!