Which to do on Labor Day, 5/1--Cinque Terre or Florence?

va,

I'd recommend visiting Florence first and then the Cinque Terre, in order to avoid "backtracking". As I recall, the trip from Venice to Florence is only about two hours via Freccia high speed, and from Florence to the Cinque Terre about 3 hours or so (depending on which trains you use).

Have you decided which of the five C.T. towns you want to stay in? Regardless of your choice, I'd suggest pre-booking accommodations well in advance as it will likely be getting "busy" in that area. Pre-booking in Florence would also be prudent.

Hi, it will always be busier, for a national holiday, but when we were there one the day in Florence was set out with
Flags and was a great atmosphere

Your sequence in your itinerary should be:
Venice > Florence (Tuscany) > Cinque Terre > Rome.
If you plan to rent a car to visit Tuscany, do so after visiting Florence, then roam Tuscany for a few days, finally return your car in La Spezia, near the Cinque Terre. The rest of the trip can be easily done by train.
If you visit Tuscany with public transportation (trains and buses), then use Florence (Tuscany's capital and transportation hub) as your base to visit Tuscany.
Please take into consideration that April 25 is a big holiday as well (Liberation Day), therefore that entire week from Apr 24 to May 3 will be the busiest in the year. Make your hotel bookings timely.

Thanks for your replies. After trying to figure out the train websites, I see that one option is to go from Venice to Milan to Monterosso. We could use that as a base without having to backtrack, then travel south to Florence and be there during the holiday. I thought from there to go to Siena for a night or two, then rent a car for a 4-5 days in Tuscany. We'd return it in Ovieto, which seems to be the general recommendation, before taking a train to Rome. I've booked a hotel in Venice, have an idea for Monterosso, but an open for ideas beyond that.

Va, in the CT region, try:

http://www.elisabettacarro.it/

I went from Venice to Monterosso a couple of years ago. While going via Milan looks more direct, what I found was that trains via Florence are generally 45 minutes to 1 hour faster than trains via Milan. To me, the shorter travel time outweighed any thought of back tracking.

The other surprising thing I found was that total train travel time for both routes I considered, Venice – Florence – Monterosso – Rome (using direct Freccia from La Spezia), or Venice – Monterosso (via Florence) – Florence – Rome, is about the same (approx. 10 hours). The clincher for me was the thought of having a relaxing breakfast in Florence and yet getting to Rome in time for lunch, so I picked the order you’re considering (Venice – Monterosso – Florence – Rome) and it worked just fine.

Thanks for your input. I see that going thru Florence to get to Monterosso would be faster. We'll be staying in Florence for four nights after Cinque Terre before heading to Tuscany. Part of my question had been whether to spend the national holiday in Florence or Cinque Terre, and we decided Florence made more sense for us because it could probably absorb the crowds better.