Back from our trip to Italy. Thanks so much for the rainy day suggestions. Turin is now on my list for a return visit. Weather wise, I'd say the trip turned out fine, though less rain would have been nice, we managed and kept ourselves busy. I think Italy was a bit rainier than typical during this time frame, though if I travel again at this time of year, I'd probably pick a different place.
Lake Como--Was supposed to rain the entirety of our 2 1/2 day stay. The day we arrived it was cloudy and the sun peeked thru very occasionally. We toured Varenna. The next day, the forecast was for rain, and it did, all day. We went to Villa Balbianello. We took the ferry and donned our rain gear for the walk to the Villa and to tour the grounds. Was happy we had rain pants which I slipped over my heavy leggings paired with a tunic. We walked around the pretty garden and were able to take pics while holding an umbrella for each other. The Villa is lovely and the tour guide was excellent. We toured Bellagio in light rain, tasted some wine at an excellent enoteca. When we left the rain had stopped so we made a trip out to La Punta Spartivento for some nice views. We had dinner in Bellagio, and it started to rain again when we left for Varenna and was raining the following morning when we left.
Cinque Terre--Was again supposed to rain the entirety of our stay. It was partly cloudy when we arrived early/mid afternoon to Manarola. After finding the BnB we immediately took a hike up thru the vineyards and out to the city viewpoints. The next day bad weather was forecast so no park passes/train passes could be sold. This was aggravating since our strategy was to visit each town via train and see as many as we could before the rain started. The trails were closed. As it turned out, it never rained, and we ended up spending more than the cost of the pass (and waiting in the ticket lines) on the train tickets. We were happy though to see the area without rain.
From Cinque Terre we took a train to Florence. We had two nice weather days and another day of mid to heavy rain. Fortunately it was the day we had the Uffizi and Accademia planned. We had 2 lovely days in Siena and 7 in Rome with no rain. We finished our trip with 3 days in the Sorrento area. It was warm and sunny the day we went to Pompeii. The next two days visiting the Amalfi towns we had on and off rain and wind. We spent our last afternoon/evening in Rome--in the rain. :)
