Northern Italy - Need help with Itinerary!!!

What interests you? Food & wine, art, history, nature?

We love food, wine, nature, architecture...not so interested in art and museums

How about maybe Parma or Modena for Days 9-11 or small location like Sassuolo (near modena). You can rent a car in La Spezia after leaving the CT.

I loved the CT. I'd say don't skip it. The 5 towns are beautiful. I loved the food and my favorite seafood dish from my trip to Italy in September was from the Belforte in Vernazza. There are hiking trails that connect the 5 towns. A couple are still closed though. We hiked the trail from Vernazza to Monterosso and the views from the trail were amazing. If you like being outdoors do one of the hikes or multiple hikes. You can also take a quick 2 min train ride between each of the cities or a ferry boat and their unique way to board. You can also venture a little bit further north via train from there to Portofino or Santa Margarita.

For a home base sevearl on here will bring up Monterosso. It's the biggest of the 5 towns, has a bigger beach, and is flatter then some of the other town. I stayed in Vernazza and loved it. We did have to hike up about 70 steps to get to our room each night. A good way to work off the pasta and vino.

If you have not yet purchased your airline tickets, it is much easier to fly into Venice out of Milan. Personally I would not skip the CT. If you love nature and good food, this is the place for you. I have always based my stays out of Riomaggiore. It feels more like a real town to me. Why not stay in Bologna? We were there in 2011 and loved it. It's the food capital of Italy!

Thanks for the feedback. I'll definitely keep CT on the itinerary!!! Adding Bologna (food capital of Italy - well of course we'll have to go!)

Glad to hear you're keeping Cinque Terre in the plan. I like Verona as a one-day stop, but CT is better place to relax.

Hi Kathy,

Here's an idea & gives you train time between locations. Personally, we enjoy the trains because they're relaxing, and we brought a light lunch to eat between locations. We enjoyed Verona much more than Bologna, and we also liked Padova as a less-touristy location than all listed. Venice is a wonderful city as your finale!

Day 1: Fly into Florence & immediately go to Lucca – 1.5 hr train
Day 3: Lucca-to-Cinque Terre is 2 hours
Day 5: Cinque Terre-to Lake Como is 5 hours
Day 8: Lake Como-to- Verona is 2.5 hours
Day 10: Verona-to-Bologna is 1 hour
Day 12: Bologna-to-Venice is 1.5 hours by train
Day 15: Fly home from Venice

GO TO CT!!!!!! ONE OF MY FAVORITE PLACES IN THE WHOLE WORLD!!! Liked it much more than Venice and Milan and Lake Como!

You'll be going past Carrara... The marble mountains are amazing.

Here's one thing to consider - the Lake Como experience and the CT experience are pretty similar to each other. Very relaxing, on the water, small towns, beautiful setting, and not much to do in the way of culture (compared to other destinations in Italy). I'm not saying that they're identical to each other - they are not. But in my book they are similar. If that's what you're looking for, then you're set.

However, if you want a wider variety of experience, then Verona for a couple of nights would be great. We've been there twice, for a total of eight nights, and didn't run out of things to see or do. Here are some photos of Verona from May 2011 and 2013 that I took there, if you want a peek.

Stepping in. Michael thank you for impressive photos of Verona. I will be visiting for my first time Milan, Lake Como, Verona, perhaps Padova all within five days on first week of May. I had a separate post with similar recommends about Lk Como and Verona. I wish I had time to go to CTerre like Kathy's plan.

If it were me I'd leave off two days at Lake Como and add Vicenza/Verona to the itinerary. There are some beautiful areas around Vicenza, one of my favorite vineyards, Villa Sceriman is in the town of Vo, between Vicenza and Padova. Having lived near Venice, it's the Italian city I went to the most and might differ from others, but I think 3 days in Venice is more than you need. Two days would be plenty for me. Especially if you devote one to sights in Venice and the other to Burano/Murano.

Having made multiple trips to Italy and lived in Firenze for about two months from April to June about 7 years ago, my favorite places were:
In Northern Italy:-
Verona (variety of sites like "Juliet's balcony", listening to the opera in the ancient coliseum (starting in June though), shopping, restaurants, etc)
Bellagio (very chill, gorgeous scenery, stayed in a hotel on the lake, caught ferries to other lake-side towns, took tours of estates, got a massage, option to go hiking by ferrying to the shore, okay food, can hang out at the very posh Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni 5* hotel)
If you need a place near water (and don't want to detour down to CT or go to Lake Como area), there's Lake Garda which is near Venice and very similar to Lake Como. Lake Garda is an outdoorsy destination. On the lake is the upscale town of Sirmione which is a nice place to visit.

Cinque Terre is wonderful though for its uniqueness, pesto & seafood, lots and lots of hiking. I really loved it and stayed in Monterosso (for the size) with my second favorite town being Vernazza.

Not too impressed by Bolognese food. Better food in Florence or Rome.
I love food myself and am visiting Turin in a month.

I have to say that I think Bologna's reputation for great food is well-deserved. You can get mediocre food anywhere in the world, get some recommendations from your hotel staff for great food. My favorite is La Colombina, on Vicolo Columbina right off Piazza Maggiore.

I think that Cristiano Bonino of Food.stories.travel. (www.foodstoriestravel.com email [email protected])could help you. He organizes travels ating and learning, connecting with local food producers who care about the environment, support the local community and believe in sustainable practices. He is northern italiano (from Torino). I traveled with him once and had an unforgettable experience.
Luella