from Venice - to Cinque Terre or Siena first?

Camille,

My wife and I are going on a similar path next week and we were recommended to hit Cinca Terre from Venice first by rail, then pick up a car in La Spezia for a drive to Siena. We plan on stopping at a few of the hill towns along the way and will use the car to further explore the Tuscany. We are stating in Siena and taking public transportation to Florence for a long day trip. We will leave the car in Siena and from there we are going south. I would also consider what day of the week your stays entailas there are markets in Cince Terre
Hope this is helpful.

Marc

I should also mention that we are not going to travel by car, only by bus, train, etc.

Camille - I know this is a downer answer but you're cramming a lot of travel into 10 days. No matter how you do it, you're going to spend most of several days on the train.

You can test out travel times by looking at train schedules on www.trenitalia.it. I'd suggest leaving the Cinque Terre for another trip.

Sorry- I can't count. Trying to take care of last minute stuff at work for my out off office time! I will actually be in Italy for 11 full days/12 nights.

Consider cutting Rome and leaving it for another trip when you can spend more time there. You could spend a week in Rome and barely scratch the surface, and we tried it in 2 1/2 days and missed a lot.

ONLY skip the Cinque Terre if you do NOT want to relax, hike a little and just kick back. If you haven't been to Florence, you could insert it in place of Rome and make it a more comfortable fit with Siena and the CT, all of which are easily accessable by train. Get a first class rail pass from Rick to make the train travel easier. I just got home last night and other than the jet lag, it was wonderful, and the CT was the best.

I think I would honesty rather skip Rome than skip Cinque Terre. But could I do Rome in a day if I just wanted to see a couple of things?

Most trains from Venice to the CT will route through Florence and then up to Pisa and La Spezia. One or two will route to Bologna and Parma and one or two will route through Milan and Genova. The travel time to the CT or Siena is about the same. If Siena is part of your plan, a bus from Florence is better and faster than the train. The bus gets you right up to the town gate. Going to the CT first and then to Siena makes a bit more sense with Rome much closer to Siena after you are done visiting both both towns. You'll save a few hours of travel time. The Eurostar from Rome back to Venice is a 4.5hr journey.

Camille, how many people are you traveling with? I would seriously consider getting a car unless you're by yourself. I did nearly this exact same trip in nearly the exact same amount of time in 2005. Only instead or Rome we went to Milan. For my wife and I it was about the same cost to get a car as it was to buy all of the separate train tickets to hither and thither. The car gave us a lot more freedom and we saw a lot more.

I will be with one other person but both of us hate driving in unfamiliar territory.

Trains are better. If there are only two of you, it will be much less expensive to take trains.

Camille - If you're OK with one long day and 3 half days of travel, stick with your planned itinerary. To minimize back tracking, go first to Cinque Terre. It's 6-7 hours by train from Venice, but you'll arrive in plenty of time for a relaxing evening. Then take the 4 hour train from Cinque Terre to Siena followed by the 3 hour train from Siena to Rome. Finally, it's 4.5 hours by train back to Venice. All the train rides except the last involve one or more changes, but most of the stations are small and the changes are easy. Your itinerary allows 2-3 nights in each location, so I don't think the travel times should be a deterrent. Not sure when you're traveling, but Cinque Terre gets very quiet late fall to early spring. If that's your timeframe, consider substituting Florence, Lucca or a second hill town.

Camille- if you still plan to go to Rome visit the Ryan Air website. The cost for the flight from Rome Ciampino Airport to Venice Treviso is about $20 per person or less. Only takes an hour and is much cheaper than the train. You will have to take about a 45 min bus ride to get to Venice. My son and his wife did it in May and said it was really slick. Ryan Air does have some restrictive baggage limitations, besure to read thoroughly, however having said that, when we flew Bergamo to Barcelona I was shocked at how lenient they were on our bags that were over-weight. The charge was minimal, and much less than the website stated. If you pay in advance when ticketing for an extra bag, it is 1/2 the price.

Camille,
My husband and I just returned from Italy this week. We flew into Venice, stayed 2 nights, went to Florence for 3 nights, then to CT for 2 nights, Siena for 2 nights and ended in Rome for 3 nights. We flew out of Rome. Our trip was perfect. We loved it and never felt rushed.

Julie

Just got back a few days ago -
we did Venice to CT to Siena to Florence to Rome and back to Venice. With the trains it was no problem; we used Eurostar for the longest legs. I didn't feel rushed at all and enjoyed the trains for the most part.

If you don't have your plane tickets yet, it might be worth seeing if you can fly into Venice and out of Rome. We are going in May and were able to fly into Milan and out of Rome for the exact same cost as in and out of the same city. Just thought I would add it if you want to look into it (might cut some travel time!).

HI, I just returned from my Italian vacation. We flew into Venice(3nights), took the train to Cinque Terre(3nights)with a mid afternoon stop in Pisa, spent a night in Florence and went to Rome(2 nights) and flew out of Rome. Everything went quite well. It probably doesn't matter that much whether you go to Siena before or after CT.

If you haven't already made your flight reservations, check with Alitalia directly. My sister and I had the same problem and Alitalia was able to book us on an Open Jaw into Venice and out of Rome. It was cheaper than all that we saw on line and saved the cross-country train trip back for a flight.

We just did trip in 17 days. Arrived in Venice, stayed 3 days, then on my first class train to Cinque Terre (Vernazza which I highly recommend)(3 days), then thru Pisa (2 hours), to Siena - beautiful medieval town (3days), on to Orvieto and Civita (2 days) and then Rome for 4 days. We didn't fly in Italy, but I've heard it's easy and efficient.

My fiance and I are planning our honeymoon in June 2010. We are thinking of flying into Rome and staying for 3 nights. We would then hit up some wineries in 2 hill towns and reach Florence by night. We would spend another night in Florence 3 nights in CT, and 3 nights in Venice. We would fly out of Venice. Is there a reason people tend to start in Venice and leave from Rome rather than the other way around? Also is there a way to take an over night train from CT to Venice? Any help would be appreciated.