Help, Help, Help Cinque Terre or Sorrento/Amalfi

Where do you fly out of?

venice....

I'd say the Cinque Terre as it's closest to Florence and, eventually, Venice.
But you don't have hotel accommodations yet?

no we don't. We have been in contact with Hosts via VRBO and the homes we are looking at are still avail. for our dates. At both locations

I didn't really enjoy Cinque Terre, but I have not been to Sorrento for a comparison.

Both are very beautiful but logistically with Florence and Venice, Cinque Terre will be easier. You won't be all over the map.

It's up to you based on your interests but if you don't have the time to commit at least 4 nights to the Gulf of Naples (Amalfi Coast, Capri, Sorrento, Pompeii, etc) then it's probably best to leave that pit for another trip to Itsly. ThT area has a lot more to offer than the Cinque Terre but u have only 13 days and Rome, Venice and Florence will take a good chunk of that time already.

Roberto, we are only giving Rome 2 nights and Venice a day 1/2. The rest is up in the air. I'm really wanting to go to the Amalfi coast area but afraid I won't get to relax and just enjoy the locals and culture. To me, thats as important as seeing the history and sights

Sorrento is our favorite place in Italy. Very fun and relaxing for us. You can do a lot very easily from there (Pompeii, Herculaneum, Mt Vesuvius, Capri, Naples, Positano, Amalfi), or, as little as you want. We've stayed at Hotel La Tonnarella 3 times, they have a private beach (shared with Hotel Désirée) where we've spent days swimming & relaxing. We also really enjoy walking all around Sorrento, especially the old section. It's a beautiful, charming town. Lots of good restaurants.

hog,

Given the places you're visiting, it makes more sense logistically to choose the Cinque Terre. Transportation is not as easy on the Amalfi Coast (depending on where you're going), while it's easy to fit the C.T. in between Rome and Florence. If you use one of the direct trains from Rome to La Spezia, travel time is only about 3H:45M (plus a few minutes to whichever town you're staying in).

I'm in the Cinque Terre now (Monterosso) and enjoying my stay as much as on previous occasions, and of course enjoying the food which is incredible (especially the Pesto). The weather has been a bit "mixed" but at least no rain (so far). It was sunny yesterday afternoon and there were lots of happy bathers taking advantage of the good weather. I should mention however that there were a few tour groups here yesterday (French & German based on the people I was speaking with) so the station was chaotic in the afternoon. It's easy to avoid that by choosing your travel times.

With such a short time frame, my feeling would be to minimize transportation times as much as possible so you can enjoy the destinations.

I'm curious: why just 2 nights in Rome? That will only give you one full day, and there's a lot to do in that city.

And just 1/2 day in Venice????

Venice 2 days

If you really want to go to the Amalfi Coast, then that's where you should go. Save Cinque Terre for another trip. You can take a high speed train from Naples to Florence in about 3 hours.

You might then redistribute your time something like this: Rome, 3 nights; Sorrento, 4; Florence, 3; Venice, 3. If your 13 days actually means 12 nights, you'll need to remove a night somewhere ... I personally would take it from Florence, leaving just 2 nights there, but others may disagree.

My preference would be...

3 nights Rome.

4 nights Amalfi Coast. Sorrento would be the best choice for transportation.

3 nights Florence.

3 nights Venice.

Since you leave next week, I would confirm lodging asap.

My two cents: We leave Monday the 21st, arriving in Rome on the 22nd and have a somewhat aggressive itinerary:

3 nights Sorrento
4 nights Venice
3 nights Cinque Terre
4 nights Rome and then home on Monday, October 5th.

We built the itinerary around hotel availability in CT so it's a little less direct than we would normally travel but I'm so excited and could not give up either Sorrento or CT. We are minimizing transfer time by hiring a driver to meet us in Rome and driving to Sorrento, flying between Naples and Venice, train between Venice and CT and then....oh no - just realized I forget to arrange CT to Rome! Back to the drawing board.

It's aggressive but we will power through.

Good luck highonthehog!

I like what Gerri posted. Four locations in 13 days is more than I would attempt. I try to do 3-4 nights per location to reduce moving around and to maximize our time at each stop. We are doing Florence, CT and Bologna in 13 nights.

However, we absolutely loved Sorrento and the surrounding area when we were there on our last trip to Italy. And whenever we come back we will certainly go there again.

Regards.

Sorrento has great transportation options, the best for the area actually, that's why it's considered a hub and makes a great base. Your options to get anywhere are: train, bus, boats (and of course taxi or private driver).