Best Way to Travel Rome, Cinque Terre, and Amalfi Coast

The Cinque Terre is quite a way from Rome and the Amalfi Coast, with a lot of wonderful destinations in between. Why has your group chosen those locations (not that they're bad places - they are all great)? Also, while the culture in the Cinque Terre and Amalfi coast is different, they are both beach/coast destinations.

What you should be pricing is not one-way trips, but "open-jaw" flights. Different carriers call this different things; on United's website, for example, you would click on "Multiple Destinations." On the Lufthansa website, click on "Select flights with more options," then "multi-stop flights." I mentioned Lufthansa because we really like their non-stop flights to Frankfurt. You can connect to almost anywhere (Milan, Naples, etc.) from Frankfurt, and the evening flights across the Atlantic makes it easier for me to get some sleep on the flights. Generally speaking, open-jaws are about the same price as round-trip flights, especially when you consider that with a round-trip flight, you have to get yourselves back to your starting point, which takes time and money.

I've not visited all those places in a single trip before, but have visited the Cinque Terre/Milan/Venice on a northern trip, and Rome/Naples/Sorrento/Amalfi Coast on a more southerly trip. Once you land, are you taking trains, or renting a car, or taking lots of small regional flights? If you're looking at round-trip Rome flights, from/to Chicago, how about flying into Rome, heading for the Cinque Terre, then down to Sorrento, then back to Rome? That last leg was pretty easy for us by train, taking the Circumvesuviana Train from Sorrento (which got increasingly crowded as we got closer to Naples), then transferring to another train in Naples for the speedy trip to Rome.

jenna,

Your original route of Milan > Cinque Terre > Rome > Amalfi Coast is a good one to work with. As someone else has suggested, using open-jaw flights will be the most cost effective and will save you time, which is important with such a very short time frame. You could also look at inbound flights to Pisa or Florence rather than Milan, and the outbound flight either from Naples or Rome (depending on which one offers the best price).

It would help to know where you're flying from, as one of the forum members may have some good tips on flights from your area.

I'd suggest going directly to the Cinque Terre, although that will make for a long travel day. Plan to spend at least 3 nights there, before moving on to Rome. That will be a fantastic place to recover from jet lag and have a "gentle" introduction to Italy (the culture becomes more intense as you head south). You'll first have to decide with of the five towns to stay in, and all of us here have our own preferences.

Travel by train from the Cinque Terre to Rome is very easy (the trip is about four hours, with at least one change at La Spezia Centrale). You can find all the train solutions on the Trenitalia website. Travel from Rome to Naples is also very easy on either the Trenitalia or Italo high speed trains.

Where are you planning to stay on the Amalfi Coast? Transportation from Naples will vary, depending on where you're going. Sorrento makes a good home base for that area, as it has reasonably good transportation connections (including an easy Bus ride direct to the Naples airport).

You may find it helpful to buy a copy of the RS Italy guidebook, as that has an enormous amount of information which will help plan not only sightseeing but also hotels, restaurants, transportation, etc. On the topic of "transportation", there are some potentially expensive "caveats" when using trains and other public transit in Italy, so you'll need to do some research on that. If you need more information, post another note.

Good luck with your planning!

We chose these specific locations because myself and another traveler visited Rome and Cinque Terre last summer and absolutely fell in love with both of them and want to return with our friends! Plus, we have always wanted to see the Amalfi Coast! We plan on staying in Monterosso while in Cinque Terre since it's the largest and has a beach and we will probably end up staying in Sorrento when we travel south since I've read it's a nice home base for traveling along the Amalfi Coast.

I looked on United's website and found great prices for flying into Milan or Pisa from Chicago and out of Naples to Chicago. THANK YOU for suggesting the "open-jaw" flights, I didn't even know about those! That will really minimize our traveling time. I think our plan will be to fly into Milan or Pisa --> Cinque Terre --> Rome --> Naples --> Sorrento and then fly out of Naples back to Chicago :)

We plan on staying in Monterosso while in Cinque Terre

Jenna, you're already running late for summer 2016 reservations. If you haven't done so, make them ASAP: I can't stress this enough! I'll probably recommend the same for Sorrento. You do know that one isn't really a beach destination, right?

We are planning to do this trip in June of next year. I will be traveling a lot within the United States this summer and won't have time.