Liguria and Tuscany

I'd probably allot a month+ for Tuscany and a couple weeks to Liguria. In Liguria, public transport is much easier (just zip along the coast via train), whereas Tuscany is larger and you need more time for public transit. You also may want to consider multiple bases in Tuscany (one north, one south, and one east).

Thank you...

Liguria: look at Noli, Santa Margherita Ligure, a town like Monterosso in the Cinque Terre, and Portovenere.
Tuscany is a large area and we have used several places as bases:
Chianti region, Siena, Castellina and Panzano.
Val d’Orcia: Pienza and Montalcino.
Cortona.
Umbria is lovely too and has fewer visitors.

Thank you.

I agree with Suki for Liguria - Noli is great!

Also Camogli - it's a beautiful small seaside village with excellent restaurants. There is a small Maritime Museum and a nice theater in Camogli - if there is a performance scheduled, you'll want to attend. One day, we hiked to the next village, Recco.

Both Noli and Camogli are smaller villages. We spent 3 nights in Noli and 4 nights in Camogli which was just about right. The rail station in Camogli is near the city center so it's convenient for day trips - we took day trips to Genoa, Santa Margherita Ligure and Portofino from there.

We did have a rental car but took public transportation for some of our day trips.

In Tuscany, Lucca and Siena are favorites - at the time we visited, Florence was super busy - it might be less so when you go.

With 45 to 60 days, you can plan for 4-5 days in several different destinations - as you do research, decide which towns/cities appeal to you the most depending on your interests. I'd suggest picking a couple of places to rent an apartment for a longer stay.

Edited to add: For our trip, we flew into Turin - it's not in Liguria but we thought that it was a good place to begin our trip - especially if you like cities as well as smaller villages. Our trip ended in Florence.

Thank you very much.

We love Liguria, enjoy!

We loved Liguria too! We flew to Genoa from London and took the train to beautiful Rapallo. It was a perfect base to see the beach towns on the Ligurian coast. One day we walked to Portofino, passing through Santa Margherita Ligure. It is a pleasant walk/hike accented by incredible sea views and palace gardens. The fantastic ferry boat ride back to Rapallo offered a stunning view of the coastal towns. Highly recommended.

In Liguria, Genoa is an interesting, relatively un-touristy large city to spend a day. It has an extensive network of very narrow medieval streets and alleys in the oldest part, a world heritage site series of 16th century palaces in the Strada Nuovo area, among other sites.

Thank you for that. Genoa is definitely on the list. Every town that we can visit along the coast will be a stop. Even beyond Genoa. We plan for around 3 to 4 weeks in Liguria.

A month will be enough to live like temporary locals and visit every Liguria town (by train/bus/boat) at leisurely pace with plenty of beach time. I lived in Santa Margherita Ligure one recent summer (July- early September), and I stayed at friends' summer homes in Chiavari and Sestri Levante frequently over the years, hence I know all the towns on the Genova -- La Spezia train line well enough. Resort towns with high concentration of summer tourists have plenty of entertaining summer festivities/events, but they end on the last day of August. Santa Margherita Ligure quiet down noticeably on September 1, umbrellas/chairs on the beach disappeared, gone were the fun summer festivities and the summer tourists (high % of Santa Margherita Ligure's summer visitors are Italian families who come every year and stay for entire summer). In the not-touristy bigger towns (e.g. Rapallo, Chiavari, Sestri Levante) the change in local life is far less noticeable when August ends, and the life remains vibrant. It is definitely a lot more fun in Liguria region in July/August then in September. Weather is hot but always pleasantly breezy.

Thank you Ashley.