Northern Italy

I find this kind of impossible--it would not be a crime to spend one day somewhere necessarily, it is more about the overall balance of the trip. It's a formulation I do for each trip, taking into consideration the flight itinerary (open jaw FTW) personal interest, planned activities, the time it takes to get somewhere, etc. But the three-day general rule of thumb kinda works for me, as long as you accept that all rules are meant to be broken! Thus, I think two weeks would be a good estimation for your appropriate trip length including these places.

I agree with Valadelphia, however you did say "stay weeks". If you are doing the northern portion of Italy you could add a 3 day stay in the Dolomites as well as perhaps 2-3 days in Verona.
If you fly into Venice then the order I would schedule is fly into Venice, Dolomites, Verona, Lake Como, Cinque Terre , Florence
and Siena.
If you are travelling by train then I would drop the Dolomites as I feel in order to appreciate the area it should be driiven.
Enjoy your planning.

What time of year? Cinque Terre and Lake Como are rather seasonally dependent.

I would not spend a week in Florence, but I’d spend a month in Venice if I could. I have spent up to a week in Cinque Terre in late October and loved it but I didn’t like Siena much and three nights was plenty.

We have spent up to a month in the Dolomites without a car, FWIW. Hoping to repeat that next year.

Thank you. It’s so hard to form a question to get the general info looking for 😁 but previous comments do help.

So, maybe what I need to say is what is the MINIMUM time (again, I know this is your personal preference) you would spend is these places assuming we visit during ideal times/seasons.

Don’t worry about season, direction of travel, start and stop points etc. That’s stuff we’ll research and figure out ourselves.

Just curious about how much time you would spend. 😁

We just went to northern Italy this August.

We spent five nights in Lake Como. I would say at least 3 nights. 4 is probably ideal.
We spent 3 nights in Verona. We did a day trip to Lake Garda (it was 97 degrees!). I would have liked another night there but 3 would have been good without a day trip.
We spent 4 nights on Venice. I felt like it was the right amount of time for a first visit.

But of course, this depends on your interests. We went to three gardens on different days in Lake Como. If you aren’t into gardens, you might want to spend less time.

Still two weeks minimum for me, but arrival and departure points do actually make a big difference!
If you could tell us what rough amount of time you actually have to work with, and if you will drive any or stick to transit, you'd probably get more specific replies.

This is what I would consider the minimum no. Of nights from my perspective and based on what I’d want to do.

Florence - at least four nights as have never been there before
Venice - at least four nights - been three times before, want to visit some of the islands
Siena - maybe do as a day trip from Florence
Cinque Terre - been before, don’t need to go again. If you want to do the hikes maybe two-three nights
Lake Como - at least three nights, not been before.

I haven't been to Venice. At least 2 nights in Siena. More if you plan any daytrips. At least 4 nights in Florence, more if you plan daytrips. CInque Terre, depends on time of year. At least 2 nights, to me it depends on how many trails would be open. Lake Como, at least 3 nights. The thing with Italy is that, in general, it's so small, that if you find you've budgeted too many days to a city, there always is some kind of day trip that can be done.

It is a very difficult question to answer without information on season. We spent 3 nights on Lake Como and it was too much, since it rained for 2 days solid (late October). Similar with CT.

Thanks, everyone! Lanlubber and Jules, that’s the kind of info I wanted. Didn’t need hard specifics, just some opinions to chew on. 😁

I agree with Lanlubber -- four nights (three full days) in Venice and in Florence, at a minimum. More would be better, of course. The other places I haven't been to.

Thanks everyone!! Weird, two of you did the exact same thing 🤣

aelkhalek post jus above selling camaros not acceptable under our guidelines - reported for zappage - this is not a used car lot

I can't get enough of Florence...so I would spend as much time as possible there and never be bored. Venice I can take or leave...have been many times and it is certainly lovely to see but no desire to go again. Only went more than once because when friends/family would viist me in Florence they wanted to go. I'm over it. Lots of touristy shops all selling the same stuff. Siena is pretty but can see enough of it in one day trip (from Florence hahaha). If you are flying into Milan and planning to stay a bit, then a visit to the lake region is a very doable day trip from there.

Have stayed on the Cinque Terre a few times. twice in an aqriturismo in Montorosso which was lovely. These days (due to crowds) I like staying in another town (like Chiavari) and just day tripping into the towns of Cinque Terre.

Florence minimum 3 nights but more if out of town excursions are planned to wine country or Arezzo, for example. Venice 3 to 5 same idea. Siena 3 to 4. CT 3 to 4, adding a day for an excursion to Santa Margherita/Portofino, or stay there also. Lake Como we stayed six nights in three towns, advise 5 nights in two towns, Bellagio is a great town to spoke out via water taxi.

Great info!! This is giving some great ideas. Looking forward to getting our plans on the calendar!!