Northern Italy travel next March 22thru April 5

This year, for example, the "Blue Path" (coastal path) at Cinque Terre was closed by landslides in May and early June. You can find discussions about this on Tripadvisor. They opened it section by section, with the Monterosso to Vernazza section opening last. It just depends on how much rain they get.

Stephanie, as this is your first trip, my first suggestion would be to pre-read "Europe Through The Back Door" prior to your trip. Given your location, you might find it interesting to take a drive to Edmonds and buy it right at ETBD (which would also allow you to talk to the experts there). As you're planning to fly into Florence (a smaller airport), it's highly likely that you'll have to change planes in Frankfurt or another major hub. Three days per stop is a good plan, although it's nice in some places to allow extra time for day trips to nearby locations. It's hard to recommend "where to stay in the CT" without knowing WHICH of the 5 villages you prefer? The trails in the C.T. are usually accessible, but during heavy rains some of them can be closed (as they were for awhile this year - I spoke with some people that had been there at the time and even the local train was disrupted). Note that a Park Pass is needed to hike the trails (check the Italy Guidebook for details). Also, WHICH lake region are you considering - Lago di Como, Lago Maggiore, Lago Lugano or Lago di Garda??? You'll only have time to visit ONE of them. My suggestion would be Varenna on Lago di Como, especially for a first visit. That will allow you to take day trips to Bellagio, Mennagio or other points on the lake. My second choice would be Stresa on Lago Maggiore, as that would allow a day trip on the beautiful Cento Valli railway to Locarno, Switzerland (out by rail, back by boat - it's a great trip although a LONG day). A day trip to Siena from Florence is fairly easy by "fast" Bus, so that would be a possibility. Regarding the weather and clothing, to paraphrase Rick, "there are no problems with bad weather during travel, only inappropriate clothing". Good luck with your planning!

The Cinque Terre hike trails do not close for winter, though they close (in variable setups, it's not an all open-all closed like most US Natl. Parks) in case of rain and so. It will be early Spring. Weather is very unpredictable in terms of temperatures, but it will not rain that much like in late Autumn.

Although it is plausible you could do Vienna, do you actually mean Venice?

Correction We hope to complete our trip in Venice. Good attention to detail Matthew, obviously not so great on my part Regards to all who have responded

Venice is a good choice. We love it there in early April. If your Lakes destination is Varenna, I chighly recommend albergo Milano. They have apartments as well as hotel rooms; in March the apartments are 110 euro for 2 people. I don't think the apartments have quite the lakefront view that the rooms have, however. The large room in Casa Rossa has a small but useable kitchen and a lakefront balcony, but it's a bit more. There's not a lot of hiking right from Varenna, apart from going up to the castle and over to the fiume, but you can ride a ferry over to Mennaggio, directly across the lake, and find more trails there.