Honeymoon help! Cinque Terre and.....

I think you should stay in Italy. You'll waste a day of travel if you come from another country. You might want to look at Venice or Florence. Donna

Tammy, It would help to know how long your total trip will be? One thing you might consider is to start with ~3 days in Paris and then travel to Nice via TGV. Spend another 3 (or so) days there. Nice is a beautiful city and while there you could take a day trip to Monaco & Monte Carlo, Villefranche or Eze. The rail trip from Nice Ville to the Cinque Terre is a relatively easy 5-6 hours. You'll change trains at Ventimiglia and then access the C.T. via Genova. Which of the five villages are you planning to stay in? I'm sure the residents of the C.T. will appreciate your return visit. Incidentally, I'm also hoping to return there this year (haven't started working on my travel plans for 2012 yet). Cheers!

Thank you so much! We have about 9 days (11 total, but counting those two as the travel days to and from Chicago) Has anyone combined CT with anything other than Nice? I've heard great things about the Almalfi Coast? (But I've also heard that you can go to CT instead and avoid the crowds). We're going to be PADI certified by this summer, so we were also hoping to find a place to scuba dive. Thank you for all of the suggestions--such a difficult decision with the entire world to see ;)

I've also heard that you can go to CT instead and avoid the crowds Where did you hear that? Its not my experience.

Paris and Nice are great but if you really want to spend time in CT I would keep this trip in Italy. Spend time in CT and then another location in Italy the options in Italy are endless maybe Lake Como area (Bellagio...) Florence (lots of choices in Tuscany)
of course Venice, Verona...

We spent time in Venice, Verona, Siena, and Florence last summer. The only reason we're trying to think outside the box is bc Italy is the one and only trip I've ever taken. Lake Como is a good thought. I'm not sure who told us they preferred CT to the Almalfi coast...I haven't looked into that area yet.

with 9 days I would say do the CT and maybe Lake Como area (or somewhere else in Italy) or spend the whole 9 days in France with a good chunk of the time in Paris

If I read correctly, you are planning to do this trip in six years? If so, everything that can be fixed in the CT area will be back in business.

Nope! June! :)

For this June, sadly I would suggest skipping the CT area.

Tammy, "For this June, sadly I would suggest skipping the CT area." I don't agree! As Miriana pointed out, the recovery efforts in the Cinque Terre are proceeding well, and I have no doubt that they will be ready to host visitors again when the tourist season starts (April?). Of course, Vernazza especially will not be "back to normal" by then, but I'm hopeful that they will be functioning in a limited fashion by perhaps May or June. Local authorities have announced that they hope to have all the trails of the Sentiero Azurro operational by Easter, but we'll have to wait and see if they can achieve that. If you would prefer to focus more on two areas, you could split your time between Nice and the Cinque Terre. If you're able to manage it after a long flight, you can take a train directly from CDG to Nice, but that would add at least 6.5-hours to your trip. You could also take a budget flight from CDG to Nice, since you'll already be at the airport (eg: EasyJet CDG-NCE, 1H:35M, fares currently listed at €36.99). Lago di Como would also be a good choice, as it's a beautiful and scenic area and perfect for "Luna di Miele". The best option for that choice would either be return flights to MXP or inbound MXP and outboud Pisa (depending on flight availability from your area). Cheers!

Ken, I'll stick with my thoughts. Everything takes a l o n g time in Italy, especially construction. This trip is 4 months from now.

The OP is a bit confusing with the reference to doing this for their 5 year wedding anniversary. But now that we know it's for four months from now, I would agree that you should avoid the CT. Lake Como is amazingly beautiful and a good alternative. Stay in Varenna and take the ferry to the other villages. Also consider Venice. It's beautiful. Happy travels.

nobody knows how far along Vernazza will be by June but the CT will still certainly be worth a visit. The people of Monterosso and Vernazza are working hard and could certainly use the support. I would say make a reservation in Monterosso or one of the other 3 villages that weren't damaged and keep an eye on the progress in Vernazza in the meantime. If you go to Lake Como I would suggest staying in Bellagio, Varenna is lovely also but I prefer the choices for restaurants in Bellagio
the area really is beautiful

Sorry for any confusion! We went to Italy this summer on a long, two week trip. We only had 2.5 days in Cinque Terre. We promised each other that we would return "soon," (but realistically, we assumed that meant a few years from now). Once we heard about the damage, the pull to return earlier was simply to help in any small way we could, even if that meant staying in one of the other towns, stopping through Vernazza to shop a bit at any of the places back up and running, anything small to keep the business going. We know we won't see an entirely restored Vernazza, but that isn't the purpose of the trip--it is a romantic pull that we have to return, as corny as that sounds! My only hesitation is simply that I literally have only traveled to the 5 Italian cities we saw on our trip. As CT is not entirely accessible to France or Spain, I just wanted to see if anyone else had ever done a creative itinerary that included CT without the typical Pisa, Venice, Florence stops. I am so grateful for all of your thoughts and suggestions!

@Bob, I also stand by my original position. While I agree that things do sometimes take awhile to get done in Italy, that hasn't been true in this case. The response to the Oct. 25 disaster was reasonably fast and substantial. Heavy equipment and a large work force were on site in both villages within a few days, and both have been mostly cleared. Although Vernazza is still evacuated AFAIK, hopefully that will change within the next few months and the local residents can start rebuilding their lives and businesses. The progress in the "old town" of Monterosso has also been good and a few businesses have re-opened. It should also be remembered that Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, the "new town" section of Monterosso and also Levanto were largely unaffected by the flooding, so they will be ready to receive visitors when tourist season starts. I wasn't planning to return there in 2012, but I agree with Tammy that it's important "to help in any small way" we can, so I will be adding the Cinque Terre to my Itinerary for this year as well. I know that regardless of the condition of the villages, I'll receive the same wonderful hospitality I enjoyed this year. Cheers!