Northern Italy first trip since Covid

I am far from Cinque Terre's biggest fan, but if you stay there a few to several days, you can enjoy the mornings and evenings without day trippers en masse, and you will likely be out on the trails during the day anyway. That said, if not especially interested in hiking (there are some pretty steep inclines to access the trails), I would look at other coastal areas. You can read about all of the trails in detail at https://www.parconazionale5terre.it/Esentieri-outdoor.php.
If it still appeals to you then go for it! You might want to spend some time in cities to bookend your nature pursuits, depending on your selected airports, so you might read up on your nearby options, like Genoa for example. Have you been to Italy before?
Do you want to stick to train and bus only?

I wouldn't stay away from CT solely due to the day trippers. If you stay in one of the villages for a few days, you can really enjoy the trails (focus on the lower ones, not the steep, almost vertical routes) and plan to stay away from town and the trains during the peak crowds. A few years ago we stayed in the hills high above Vernazza, in a guest house, and we just loved the scenery, the little churches, and of course walking the trails. It also helped that our guest house provided dinner. There was a shuttle between the town and the hills, but it quit running around 8, so if that's still the case for "upper Vernazza" you'd either need to stay in town or eat dinner early.

For CT, If you like to avoid some people, consider staying in Manarola or Riomaggiore. Both seemed less touristy and in Riomaggiore, I think we saw more locals than tourists. Corniglia, also seemed far quieter, but the whole city is up on a cliff and it was quite a walk up to the attractive city.

We found the Cinque Terre coastal hiking trail too ctowded to be enjoyable 10 year ago, and I believe it has only gotten worse. We did enjoy the quiet early morning and evening times in Manarola, but after one day of hiking from there to Vernazza we gave up on the popular SientireomAbruzzo and t hiked the steeper trails in the hills above. That was too hot, so we gave up and spent the rest of the day swimming off the rocks. It is not a place I would visit again.

But the Lakes should be nice for your interests. You did not include Lago Maggiore, but I will mention the opportunities there. We will be spending a September week in a small town on the lake, with guided guided hiking provided by HF Holidays, a UK-based cooperative that focuses on walking holidays in the UK and around the world. The holiday includes lodging, meals, walks at 2 levels each day, and transport to or from the trailheads. Plus the camaraderie of other guest at meals and on the hikes. Non-members are welcome with a small supplemental fee. They are offering two sessions in May of next year, beginning May 10 and May 17.

Take a look at the photo gallery:

https://www.hfholidays.co.uk/holidays-and-tours/the-best-of-lake-maggiore-walking-holiday

We are combining this with a week on our own at Lago di Garda. You could do something similar, adding places like Verona, the hill town of Bergamo, or Ravenna with its beautiful mosaics. All more worthy of one’s time than Cinque Terre, in our opinion.

Skip the Cinque Terre and go to Lerici, a beautiful small city of the Gulf of La Spezia a short bus ride from the La Spezia Centrale rail station. From there you can catch the ferry to Cinque Terre and Portovenere, take a short bus ride to the stunning seaside village of Tellaro, enjoy Lerici and its castle, restaurants, and views w/o tourist crowds, and take hikes on the uncrowded trails of the Park of Montemarcello.
https://www.apathtolunch.com/2011/06/castle-to-castle-along-gulf-of-poets.html
https://lericicoast.it/en/home-english/
https://lericicoast.it/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/ALA-CAPRIONE-TRAILS-2.pdf

Since you are seeking beautiful scenery, casual hikes and culture, consider visiting Merano in South Tyrol. The region offers a breathtaking blend of mountains, castles, vineyards, orchards and some of my favorite trails in Italy, which are known as "waalwegs". These trails are easy to wander and run along ancient water channels through the valleys and mountainsides. The town is about a 1.5 hour drive north of Riva del Garda on Lake Garda. Here is link to more information if interested: https://throneandvine.com/things-to-do-merano-meran/

If you are considering south Tyrol area - I would highly recommend Ortesei - it was GORGEOUS as you are right in the Alps vs Merano which is in the Valley. You could do both! If you spend a week there, you may consider renting a car to visit lots of different areas! :)

Yes, Ortesei is right in the Dolomites but May is pretty early for hiking there. Many lifts into the hiking areas will not be open. We love hiking in that area but would not consider going there until mid-June. In Zmay the lower elevation of Merano is a much better choice.

It's bizarre how CT is so famous and popular, but no one knows the other Ligurian coastal towns. The CT villages are cute but not all that special. They are small with a limited number of restaurant choices, and virtually nothing else to do except look at the sea, and maybe hike between a few of them. Your photos will look the same as thousands of other tourists because they were a a limited number of great spots to get photos. And there is a bit of train travel time to get to them.

There are wonderful towns which seem less touristy and more legitimate cities all along the coast from Spezia around to Genoa and then all the way to Ventimiglia. There are also places inland - close or far. I have come to really enjoy these non-tourist places to enjoy a slice of Italian life which is more authentic.

I just saw a video by a guy on YT of 20 great lesser known northern Italian towns. A lot of them seemed interesting.

Same thing for Lake Como. Como itself is not that special. Bellagio and Varenna are really nice. There are nice places on all of the northern lakes.

And yes, if you can get over to Bolzano, Merano and the Dolomites that area is great too.

Thanks so much for the extremely helpful comments~ We are convinced that CT is not for us.

We have visited Italy many times (e.g. Amalfi coast, Tuscany, Rome, Venice, Florence, etc) but never ventured into the north. Also no visits to Italy in a long time, so we are really looking forward to this trip.

Any other suggestions are welcome.

Thanks!

We spent 12 nights in northern Italy in August 2021. We went to Lake Como, Verona, and Venice. In May and with a few more days, I would have added Padua. We did it all by train.

We debated between Cinque Terre and Lake Como and were very happy with Lake Como as our choice.

We still don't know how you wish to travel. I generally pick the scenery bit first, with transport in mind, then narrow down on a town to stay in that is convenient to doing outdoorsy things. The only problem with Italy is the sheer infinite possibilities. May is almost always a fantastic time to be anywhere on the coast--I am less familiar with mountains.

Lago di Garda was magical for me, and I barely touched anything beyond the bottom 1/3 of it. Ferries are the way to go, and the ferry from the bottom to the top is LONG, so maybe not the best for a day trip, but maybe pick a half of the lake and do that :) great food and gelato!

The above suggestions have been very helpful, and we are now envisioning a different trip than we had initially considered. I would like to list some potential towns to visit below, and solicit comments re the number of nights to allot to each (if any) and whether we are omitting some terrific place that would be convenient to include. We are thinking of a 14-16 day trip. We do not want to rush from place to place. It should be obvious that we especially enjoy Italian food!

So (in no particular order):
Bologna, Ferrrara, Ravenna, Mantua, Parma, Modena, Bergamo, Bellagio, Varenna, Urbino, Pesaro, Malcescine, Verona.

We will be traveling mostly by train. I am open to hiring a car and driver if necessary to see something great> I drove in Italy 25 years ago and don't want to drive there now.
Thanks!

I have not been to most of the places you mentioned, but we did do a short trip to Verona (3 nights), Ravenna (2 nights) and flew back from Bologna (1 night), following a trip to Sicily. We were there in early November.

We loved Ravenna. We were there for 1-1/2 day. We could have used 2 full days.

We liked Verona. There is also a lot to see here. We did a day trip to Padua. I think it would have been better to stay in Padua. We had transportation issues getting back and it was a very long day.

Good luck w your planning. This trip
Was before the pandemic.