Florence/Cinque Terre in late October

Our tour groups are still visiting the Cinque Terre at that time and always stay two nights. I have had lovely weather at that time in Italy, with an occasional day of rain. Staying longer in the CT can help you to be flexible in case of rain. Staying in Florence means that you can judge the weather before making the trip but you'll definitely have less time to explore the destination.

Usually a week before your travel day you might have some reliable weather forecast. Just see if you can make flexible arrangements and if they forecast rain the entire time, simply cancel your Cinque Terre hotel.

The end of October is statistically the wettest time of the year, but it's hard to predict from year to year.

Heidi, I'm affraid that if you try to do a day trip to CT from Florence you'll run out of time and daylight, expecially if you want to stop off in Pisa, which is along the way. In 2012 my wife and I left Florence on the train, stopped in Pisa for about 4 hours to see the "Leaning Tower, etc." and traveled on to La Spezia for two nights. From there we took a full day to see and do the CT. We took the water taxi to Monterosso, hiked back to Vernazza, trained back to Manarola, walked to Riomaggiore and trained back to La Spezia. This way we could enjoy the walking and trails, some great food, beer and wine, without feeling rushed to get back. Have a great trip!

2 nights it is! Thanks for the feedback. And Steven, I like your itin, I think I will add the Pisa stop. :)

Heidi, I forgot to mention that you can check your luggage into a secure attended room at the train station in Pisa while you're visiting the sites. We took the local bus to get there and back. Get your tickets to the Leaning Tower well in advance online.

Thanks so much for that info Steve... Your itinerary looks great - going to do just that!

Thanks Steven - what site do you use for getting tickets? (to leaning tower) - also, silly question, but for the churches I know the knees/shoulders must be covered for ladies - but can I wear jeans? (nice jeans with nice tops - I don't have 'pants'; I am from Seattle after all ;)

For booking Leaning Tower tickets, Rick gave a link to this, which appears to be the official site (note that it says "no booking fee"): http://boxoffice.opapisa.it/Turisti/

Here's what he says: "Online bookings for the Leaning Tower are accepted no earlier than 20 days and no later than one day in advance. Print out the voucher and bring it to the Tower 15 minutes before your entry time."

we just went from florence to cinque terre today and stopped at pisa. florence to pisa was 1 hour and it's about 30 min walk from pisa train station to field of miracles. jeans are fine as we saw many who were not dressed properly, were given some material to cover their shoulder or knees and were allowed in. i am not sure if that is always the case, but from what i saw today and from what we saw in venice, that was the case.

we are now in cinque terre and like steven said, there won't be enough time to do what you wanted if you were just doing a 'day trip' there. CT is very nice (we are in monterosso) and will be doing the walk tomorrow and are excited for that!

Hi Mike808 - we are about two weeks behind you and arrive in CT on the 28th of September. I'm hoping you can help me with two questions. Are there parts of the blue path that are now closed? And I'm now trying to pare down my clothes/shoes. I live in AZ and wear light hikers by Oboz for our dry, rocky trails. I'm leaning toward leaving the hiking shoes in AZ and doing the hike in Nikes. What do you think?

I hope you're having a great time! CT has been on my bucket list for SO long.

Take the train to Pisa Centrale to store luggage. [there is another train station closer to the Tower sight, but no luggage facilities] Allow enough time to store and retrieve luggage. The room is at the far end of the station and there's one attendant. If he's on a break or there's someone ahead of you, you'll need a little extra time. It's a short taxi ride from the station and easy to find the bus stop to get back. It's not that easy to find the bus stop at the train station.

Heidi, tidy jeans and nice tops (as long as they're not sleeveless) are just fine for the churches: I wore the same all over Italy, and jeans are very popular with the locals as well.

Luann, yes, two parts of the Blue are closed or nearly so. The segment between Cornigilia and Manarola has been closed to landslide damage for some years now, and only a piece of the (very easy) segment between Manarola and Riomaggiore is open: it doesn't go all the way through so will require backtracking.

You can see which CT trails are closed here:

http://www.parconazionale5terre.it/Esentieri-outdoor.php

The 4 sections of the Blue are 592-1 (SVA2) - 592-4 (SVA2), and the closed sections are marked with a red and white circle. Clicking on any of the trail notations will bring up a more detailed description. A bit of good news here? They recently redid the entire park website, and FINALLY made all the info available in English! YAY!

Your Nikes will be fine. I left my heavy-duty hikers at home too, and did it in lighter athletic shoes.

Thanks again Kathy! Nikes it is. I travel every week for work and am a champion packer but can't seem to pare it down for Italy!

Just don't overthink it, Luanne! The trick is:
• Not to take clothing that you rarely wear at home or on vacation: it'll feel awkward and foreign to you. My DH and I never travel with dress clothes as we don't eat at places which require them, nor wish to have to return to the hotel to change at the point which we're hungry. Like Heidi, we're jeans-and-shirts people, and have never had a problem finding great casual places for dinner.

• Not to take anything you are not SURE you will wear more than once.

• Not to bring a lot of fussy fabrics that require ironing or other maintenance.

• Not to bring pants colors - such as white - which will be trashed the first day you wear them.

• Not to bring a lot of heavy fabrics. Yes, we bring jeans but those are our ONE concession as far as weight goes. Mine are also a spandex/cotton blend which don't weigh that much.

Most locals do not dress for leisure time as they might for work so you won't be out of place in anything tidy, reasonably clean, not terribly revealing, and comfortable unless you're planning on dining at a ritzy restaurant.

Thank you for your packing tips Kathy, very very helpful. As I overpack on all my trips but do only wear the same few things over and over, so I loved your advice not to bring anything you don't usually wear (thinking you'll wear it on vacation) - common sense but not for bad packers, so thank you! and so glad to hear about the jeans, now I can pare my packing down significantly not trying to pack all sorts of pants/skirts I will never wear. Thank you!

You're welcome Heidi. You'll have a lot more fun if you feel like yourself!
We do a lot of rinsing out/drip-drying of shirts and underwear in the sink so fabrics with some synthetics in them - which tend to dry most quickly and resist wrinkles - are a plus. And layers work better for warmth than 1 heavy outer layer.

On trips of a couple of weeks or more, we'll do at least one washing-up session at a self-serve laundromat. I know that a lot of tourists don't wish to spend the time but we do it early in the morning, and have met some interesting people who have been doing the same thing! It really doesn't take all THAT much time, and it's nice to repack a totally fresh suitcase.

Heidi, Talking about packing: One thing that helps me a LOT is to create a packing list for each trip. Sometimes we bike, sometime we hike. I make a list for myself, and one for my husband. Then as I pack, I highlight each item as it goes into the suitcase, then nothing is missing, and I know I have JUST what I need.

I can fit a 2 week trip in a carry on size easy...with room to spare. As you probably already read, pack for one week only, then plan to wash. I use packing cubes. 1 for tops, 1 for underwear/socks, etc 1 for electronic stuff like charging cords, batteries, etc.

When I started to travel overseas 15 years ago, I wore yoga pants, thinking they'd be comfortable on the plane...well, I wore them once, and never again. Now I travel in my most comfortable jeans, and wear then almost everyday for 2 weeks....they don't need to be washed. If you get gelato on them, simply clean that stain. Worst case, have your hotel launder for you.

One thing that I've started to pack for every trip is a simple dress. Found it at Gap, I wear it on really hot days, just sightseeing, and out at night to dinner. Mostly so I feel a little more dressed up, and I get out of my jeans.

Honestly, I live in jeans almost year round, and can't see traveling without them.

funny, I am not a yoga pants person either! I too find jeans the most comfortable and wear them on all my flights (and every single day) this is such a relief that I can wear them in Europe. It is going to be cold (end of October) so not sure I should even bring a dress as I really really don't wear them at home, even out to dinner (and we go to high end restaurants). I like the idea of packing cubes. Did you get the Rick Steves ones? other than nike's, what type of shoes did you bring for dress up? I do love my heal boots, but not sure I want to waste the space. Although If I do bring those, they really will be worn quite a bit on dressing up the jeans to go out to dinner.

Heidi, I'm the wrong person to ask about shoes as both my husband and I only bring two pairs (wear one on the plane) and both pairs could be walked in for miles, all day, on any sort of surface.

We also rarely return to the hotel before dinner to change but collapse at whatever looks good and is open in the late afternoon/early evening: no reservations, less hectic, and we usually land a nice table. Oh, and we don't eat lunch. Everyone does it a little differently! :O)