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Late Sept Itinerary Northern Italy with hiking

My husband and I are planning a trip to Northern Italy from Southern California the last 2 weeks in Sept for our 20 yr anniv. We love hiking, wine, food and beautiful views and have never been to Italy before. While we appreciate art and history it's not our main focus as I'd really like to avoid the crowds in those places. We'll probably go to a church, castle and a museum to get a general experience but it's not a primary focus at least for this trip. We have booked flights, we fly in to Milan and out of Rome.
Our plan is rough but I'd like to start booking some hotels (or is it too early). We'd like to take public transportation as much as possible but thinking that might be hard that time of year in the Dolomites, looking for any guidance on this.
From Milan Airport to Lake District (lake como) possibly Varenna but open to ideas of where to stay for just one night.
From Lake District to the Dolomites still looking at good day hikes where we can set a home base and do 2-3 day hikes from there or near there. Thinking 3 nights there around maybe Vipiteno, Bolzano or Trentino
From Dolomites to Cinque Terre for 3 nights
From Cinque Terre to Tuscany area likely Florence for 2 nights then a Tuscany hill town (likely Serre di Rapolano) for another 2 nights
From Florence/Tuscany area to Rome for 2 nights then back home.
Thoughts or recommendations on this and realistic-ness of doing it without renting a car (not opposed to it, just wanting to sit back and relax vs worry about driving)
thanks

Posted by
16028 posts

We have been to the Dolomites for hiking three times, one of them in late September. The weather that time was great..

If you go to Varenna you will have to return to Milan to get to the gateway to the Dolomites (Bolzano). I suggest you not use Bolzano , Trentino, or Vipiteno as a base: go into the mountain valleys like Val Gardena and stay there. You can hike right from your door or take a lift up.

The Val Gardena is well served by buses from Bolzano. You can choose any of the villages, Ortesei, Santa Christina, Selva di Gardena: it is all good.

For hiking I would chose the Domoties over Cinque Terre, at least in terms of allocating time. You will have wonderful accommodations and food and wine in the Dolomites. And no crowds.

Posted by
11247 posts

Lola’s advice is excellent. I suggest you skip the Cinque Terre, though, add a 4th night in the Dolomites and add a night each to two of your other stops. Those three 2-night stops will be a blur!

Posted by
4105 posts

Lola and Laurel have given you excellent advice.
To travel from the Dolomites to the Cinque Terre will consume 71/2-81/2 hours.

Try this. Milan-Verona ( on arrival) -Bolzano(Val de Gardena)- Florence-Tuscany-Rome. If you want a stop on a lake for one or two nights, add that between Bolzano and Florence at either Riva del Garda or Malcesine. Train/bus combo.

To get an idea of travel times, use rome2rio.com
Then Trenitalia.com for accurate train times.