How to see Rome, Florence, Venice and Cinque Terre

You can fly out of Pisa or Genoa the closest airports to Cinque Terre but it would not be direct to USA and require a connection.

If the tour ends in Venice, you could take the train from there over to Cinque Terre. Depending on how long you want to stay in that area, you could base in Lucca and take a day trip to Cinque Terre.

It depends on the reason you want to see it. Cinque Terre is quite pretty. If you are just hurrying over there to say you saw it, then it might not be worth the stress. If you have some time to spare, you could have some fun walking around that area.

You could go to Cinque Terre by train and then fly home from Florence, which is the closest to that area. Or maybe Milan

If you are returning to the US, there are probably more direct flights back from Milan than any other airport close to Cinque Terre.

The airport transfer at the end is overwhelming to me though.

This caught my eye. Honestly it is easier to fly IN to Venice than out of Venice but we have done both and the departure was no problem...as long as you know your options and plan for it. We had a direct flight home to US at 11 am- booked a water taxi pick up at 7:15 and were at the airport with plenty of time to spare. The Venice airport is really quite nice now, easy to navigate, quick security etc.
The problem arises when you have a flight out early- and that will not be a direct to US- so if you can avoid that don't let the departure from Venice dictate your plans.

You will get plenty of help here figuring out your best departure plan from Venice. We could just as easily done vaporetto/airport bus but decided to splurge a bit and it was money well spent just for the views as we left Venice- cost was 115E

If it were me- and I have not been to CT- I would end in Venice. See CT on the tour- getting /from CT is a bit complicated as well, you'll be better off being guided thru that transfer.

Both of those tours are really fast paced. If you choose the Heart of Italy I'd arrive in Rome at least 2 days early- the tour only has 2 nights in Rome- that is woefully insufficient.

If you add Venice at end- give it a minimum of 3 nights. I'd actually add a night to Florence as well then head to Venice

Of the two tours, I would want to take the Heart of Italy tour and add Venice on your own. The reason I’m picking this one is because you will have easier transportation by being on the tour to/from Cinque Terre instead of navigating that yourself, and even more because you will have a chance to stay in a small town in Tuscany (Volterra). The more times I’ve been to Italy, the more I love those gorgeous scenic villages!

To get to Venice from Florence, it’s easy to take the train. Here’s the website:
www.trenitalia.com
Use the Italian names. Depart: Firenze. Arrive: Venezia St. Lucia

We like to stay at Hotel Ala in Venice. If you’re stressed about the early departure from Venice, you could move to a nearby hotel the night before you leave. Or to just throw out options - you could take a flight to Amsterdam later in the day, for instance, and fly home non-stop from Amsterdam a day or two later.

Had you considered the Best of Italy tour? It hits all 4 your of desired locations and ends with you in Rome with easy access to flights home.

Oh, Best of Italy is a fantastic tour! We absolutely loved the entire tour and have since returned to several of the locations to enjoy them more.

stalo71, you've gotten a lot of good ideas here. I'll just throw in that if you choose to end in Venice, there is no need to stress about the airport transfer. It can be no more difficult than anywhere else. Your hotel will help you figure it out. Thousands do it every day.

Note that you mentioned the Best of Rome, Florence, Venice, which is actually the other way around - starts in Venice, ends in Rome. It would be easier to get to CT from Rome., but not significantly. Its all doable.

I agree with the advice above about using Milan as a good return airport from the Cinque Terre.

Worth it? It might be crazy busy in the summer - I've stayed there three times now and love it, but never in summer! There's more to the beautiful Italian Riviera than the Cinque Terre - the only part most tourists have heard of. An alternative might be the Portofino peninsula north of the Cinque Terre - Camogli, Rapallo, Santa Margherita Ligure - really nice towns. They may be busy in summer too but fewer Americans, at least. The train works great to day trip up and down the riviera too - you can stay in one part and visit another.

Several years ago my husband and I did the heart of Italy tour. I wanted to add on Venice at the end. It was perfect. To accomplish this I spoke with a Rick Steve’s travel agent. At that time it was 50.00 for the consult for help planning beyond the tour and well worth it. She recommended a pub crawl in Venice that we still talk about. It was packed with history and humorous commentary from a local Venetian. It was the best time we’ve ever had on any excursion and we’ve had many. She also recommended a local boutique hotel in Venice that was fantastic. We took the train from Rome to Venice (3hrs +_) at the end of our 9 day heart Italy tour and spent our last 3 nights in Venice. We flew open jaw (Atlanta to Florence/ Venice to Atlanta ). The boat ride from our hotel in Venice to the airport at sun rise left us speechless. I cannot recommend this itinerary enough. You could probably find all this information on the forums but I was ready to lock and load my vacation and the RS agent laid it all out for us. IMO this is the biggest bang for your Italian vacation itinerary. I wouldn’t do hottest part of summer though. Early spring or fall is best. It’s unbelievably hot and I live in the south.
Happy travels!

Thanks everyone for the ideas. I'm in the south- so I know hot. Hopefully it's not much hotter than here. I'm taking my daughter for graduation, so we have to go June/July before college starts. I'm sure I'll have more questions once I get into this.

Well it probably is hotter! And keep in mind Air conditioning in Italy ( or anywhere in Europe) is not like here in US and they don’t do ice ;)

If you enjoy hiking I would not skip Cinque Terre--it is absolutely stunning. Also, the train that runs between the 5 villages is easy to access and you can see all of them in one exhausting day. If you go I suggest you buy the day pass online for both the trails and the unlimited train rides at the official CT website http://www.parconazionale5terre.it/Eindex.php. We didn't do that and ended up standing in line for a while at the one office in Monterosso that sold them.

We were on a Rick Steves' My Way tour of Italy and the group stayed in Sestri Levante instead of Cinque Terre. Most of the tourists there were Europeans. It was right on a picturesque cove and much less crowded. Also, it was only a half hour train ride from CT. The hike from Monterosso to Vernazza was beautiful through vineyards with amazing views of the Ligurian but it is very steep coming down. I would not do it in sandals even though some people did without a problem.

I'd do Heart of Italy with Venice at the end. Here are your transportation options to the airport.

https://quickvenice.com/transportation/index-transportation.htm

Just make sure your flight home is after 10-11am

Use Google flight matrix to look up flights. Then book with the individual airline.