Itinerary Advice

John - A bit more information so that we can be more helpful...

What does nine days mean? Is that 8 nights in Italy or 9 nights?

Have you ticketed yet? Are you locked into the Rome Milan option?

Thanks.

Hi John - I honestly believe after many years of touring Italy that you guys would be better off passing on Milano and concentrating on Rome, Venice, and Cinque Terre. They really do deserve the attention you can give them and you will love all three locations. Possibly you can fly out of either Rome or Venice?

Ciao, Greg

Hi John,
I think that you can do your proposed itinerary but it will involve some long travel days in between. I agree with flying into Rome and home from Milan.
Something like:

3 nights--Rome, train to La Spezia from Rome's Termini Station--(4 hours);

3 nights--Cinque Terre--train to Venice, (it's about 6-8 hours)

2 nights--Venice; train to Milan (3-4 hours)

1 night Milan to fly home the following day.

If you're flexible about destinations you might consider cities that require less travel-time in between. For example, Rome, Florence and Cinque Terre; or Milan, Cinque Terre, Venice. Just some thoughts.

We are flying into Rome June13 to meet up with our daughter. We plan on staying in Rome until the 16th and then we are looking for other interesting places to visit. We need to fly back home on June 22. Right now we are looking into Rome-Cinque Terre-Venice. Any other opinions would be great. Thanks to all who have responded.

If you can fly home from Venice instead of Milan then My suggestion for you is:

Rome 4 nights
CT 2 nights
Venice 3 nights
Fly home from Venice

If you are locked into Milan departure:

Rome 3 nights
CT 2 nights
Venice 3 nights
Milan area 1 night
Fly home from MXP

Actually after some more research I have found that it is less expensive for us to fly out of Venice than Milan. So now I just need some advice on transpotation and hotels/inns. Again thank you all for your input. Rome-Cinque Terre-Venice

That's great! You won't have to backtrack to Milan! If don't have a copy of Rick Steves' Italy Guidebook that would be a great place to begin looking at hotel options. We've always had pretty good luck with his recommended hotels.

For this trip, train travel is the best option. You can use www.trenitalia.it for tmetables and fares. You can wait till you arrive in Italy to purchase point to point tickets.

Again thank you to all who responded to my post. If I need anything else I will be sure to make contact.

John, I really found Caupona.com helpful for hotels you can narrow your search by city then location, dollar range,stars, populularity, near monument, etc. Then I use tripadvisor to see the rank of the hotel and read the reviews