Excursion from Milan or Florence to Cinque Terre

Florence not Milan

Florence, definitely.

Thank you!!!

I agree with the others - Florence!

A day trip to the Cinque Terre is certainly possible, although it will be a long day if you want to have a look at all five towns. I'd suggest starting in Riomaggiore and working your way north to Monterosso, via train or boat (boats don't stop at Corniglia). Have an early dinner in one of the excellent restaurants in Monterosso (Cantina di Miky is a big favourite with many here), before returning to Florence in the evening. The last time I took a day trip to the C.T., I didn't get back to Florence until almost midnight!

You can check the train solutions at......

• https://www.bahn.com/en/view/index.shtml
• http://www.trenitalia.com/

If you haven't travelled by train in Italy before, be sure to do some research on the usual "potentially expensive caveats".

I'd agree with Andrew that it's really best to stay a night or two in the CT whenever possible. You also don't mention the time of year you're intending to go or what you're interested in doing/seeing when you get there? It can make a difference in deciding whether to make the trip or not. ?????

As far as trains from Florence, there are currently two in particular - one going from and one returning to Florence - which are the fastest:

Frecciabianca 8602, 07:36 Firenze Campo Di Marte > 09:11 La Spezia Centrale (1 hr, 37 minutes)

Frecciabianca 35627, 20:03 La Spezia Centrale > Firenze Campo Di Marte 21:40 (1 hr, 37 minutes)

In La Spezia you'll switch to (most likely) a regionale train to a CT village: Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola or Riomaggiore. The furthest (Monterosso) is about 23 minutes away, and the closest (Riomaggiore) is about 7 minutes.

Thank you everyone for the tips!
I am going to Italy in September. I have 2 days that either I could go to Venice or Cinque Terre. Which do you recommend? We will be in Italy for 10 days. We fly into Milan for 2 days, then to Venice? for 2 days, on to Florence and end up in Rome. Any suggestions on places to stay in Florence or Rome would be appreciated :-)

Thanks,
Polly

Any suggestions on places to stay in Florence or Rome would be
appreciated :-)

As we don't know your budget or preferences for amenities, best suggestion is to get on booking.com and do a search, using budget and amenities as filters. Just make sure those accommodations are IN central Florence and Rome and and not way out of the city centers.

As this question has come up many times, you can also do a search of the Italy forum:

Put "Rome, hotels" or "Florence, hotels" in the search box at the tiptop of this page and hit "go"
On the page that comes up, click "Travel forum" under "Filter by type"
On the next page that come up, click "One year and newer" under "Filter by date"

Voila! Cruise the former threads which appear for ideas! :O)

Editing to add: you don't say how long you intend to be in Florence but if only for a couple days, I personally wouldn't steal time from it a CT trip. Remember that two nights = only one FULL day in any location. And be realistic about how many nights you have on the ground in Italy? Arrival day is always a partial and a jet-lagged one at that, and you might be counting your flight day/departure day as well? Milan+ Venice or CT+ Florence+ Rome is 3 moves, and you'll lose at least a 1/2 day in transport each time you relocate.

It might be helpful if you could share your actual itinerary per date? What date/location you fly from and what date you must fly back? Have you actually booked plane tickets yet? Also, your interests (museums, architecture, history, outdoor sports, etc.) would give us a better idea of where you might make best use of your time.

I would vote to leave out Cinque Terre on this trip. You will be plenty busy visiting Milan, Florence, Venice and Rome. After hitting these highlights you can begin planning your next trip to Italy adding on locations and deciding which, if any, of the original locations required a second visit!

Rick Steves has, out of nowhere, made the Cinque Terre such a “must go” destination, that everybody feels obliged to go, even though their overall itinerary plan makes that destination an unlikely one.

Frankly, given your overall plan, I would say you should skip the Cinque Terre altogether. You don’t seem to have the time. You need 3 nights in Venice and the lagoon islands, 3 nights in Florence, and 4 nights in Rome, for a proper visit to those cities. You don’t even have that.

hey polly
i agree with other posters about leaving out cinque terre, your time is too short to see all this along with travel time, check in check out of hotels, packing up and unpacking per hotel stay. september is still a busy month for tourists in italy and it's crowded. like kathy adds, being realistic about nights on ground, are your flights multicity or round trip from one city so as to backtrack and time that takes to return, are you doing train travel or renting a car, are your 10 days on ground or day one arrival (international flight, jetlag) day 10 departure, so only 8 days total.
roberto is from florence (firenze) area, he's right on about the bare time needed to enjoy the cities without adding more. italy is a big country and takes time to enjoy.
are you looking for apartments or hotels, how many people, dates. besides booking.com, romeloft.com, cross-pollinate.com, thebeehive.com, you don't have much time so i'd start looking and book something in central areas that foots your budget. come back and let us know if need more suggestions. not trying to burst your bubble or upset you but it's the reality of enjoying italy.
aloha

Thank you , Thank you! I love being part of this forum as you all have giving me a great deal of information.
I will take the advice and not go to Cinque Terre :-(. Next time!

I leave Miami on the evening of September 10th & arrive in Milan the morning of the 11th. We return to Miami on September 21st. I will only have a taste of 4 cities as is.

Any suggestions where to go shopping when in Milan?

Thank you again,

Polly