Coastal Town to Visit

Posted by danielmiller19 on 01/25/16 06:01 PM

I was wondering if you all could help me in deciding on a coastal town to visit while in Italy. Our trip will be in mid-to-late June. Our plans are to fly in Rome and fly out of Venice. Current Itinerary roughly shakes out to 3 days Rome, 2 days Florence, 3 days in smaller Tuscan towns (Siena, Civita, etc.) and 3 days in Venice - which leaves me with one more destination (about 3 days) to fill out the itinerary.

Wasn't planning on heading as south as the Amalfi Coast, but should I?
I hear Cinque Terre is beautiful - but crowded that time of the year? Is it worth it?
Or - forget the coast! You have to go to _______________!

Thanks in advance.

Posted by Charlotte

Fort Lauderdale, FL

01/25/16 06:52 PM

1246 posts

First, have you bought plane tickets yet? Most people find it much easier to fly into Venice and out of Rome. Flights leaving Venice are usually very early in the morning and it is time consuming to get to the airport.

Also, it is better to count your nights, rather than days, e.g. 3 days Rome is really 2 nights. One day traveling to Rome (at least part of the day), one day seeing Rome, 3rd day is traveling to next destination. How many nights will you have total?

As far as crowds, June is crowded. Cinque Terre is crowded, but if you get up early before the crowds, maybe hike the less popular trails, and hang out in the evenings after the crowds, you should enjoy it. Been there several times :)

Posted by danielmiller19 OP

01/25/16 07:04 PM

10 posts

Thank you, Charlotte!

First off, no we have not bought tickets yet. In my mind doing Rome first and ending in Venice seemed like a better "send-off" but it can be easily flipped. I've noticed a lot of the flights coming into Venice arrive late at night (11:25pm, etc). Will it be a problem getting into Venice that late? Will we need to find a hotel just outside of the airport for night 1?

If I count nights I have 15.

(3 nights Rome, 2 nights Florence 3-4 nights greater Tuscany, 3 nights in Venice)

Which would give us 3 nights in Cinque Terre. If it's crowded, but manageable it still might be okay. We're coming from SoCal and fight the crowds at Disneyland on the regular - this can't be much worse than that, right?!?!

Posted by lnbsig 🌍

North Carolina

01/25/16 07:11 PM

2504 posts

While you're in Venice, you could take the vaporetto over to the Lido, if you want to get in some beach time. My "forget the coast!" suggestions would be either a couple of days in Lucca, or more time in Florence, or Rome, or Venice, or all three.

Posted by MarcWithaC

Germany & Italy

01/25/16 07:27 PM

8 posts

Hi Daniel,

Since you are already in Venice, i would suggest to visit the Cinque Terre. We love to go there every year. Yes its very crowded during day time (mostly with americans who carry rick steves books around :-) ) but definitely worth it...so is the Amalfi Coast. But you would save yourself a lot of time if you travel to cinque terre instead.