Suggestions for mid March trip flying in and out of Florence with teen daughter!

Maura,
So you'll actually only have 7 days on the ground in Italy. Out of those 7 days, you are planning to burn 3 going to CT. Be aware that you will spend 2 half days just getting to and from CT. That leaves you one full day, an afternoon on arrival and a morning before returning. You need to do some careful research to avoid being there when the cruise ships arrive, or the place will be crowded.

That leaves you with just 4 days. Moving will burn up even more time. I suggest you stay put in Florence. You could make a day trip to Siena or you could scoot over to Lucca. Another possibility would be to take a day trip tour of the Tuscan countryside. If you end up going to CT, I wouldn't plan on more than one other day away from Florence.

Read up as much as you can regarding CT. Some folks love it and have had great experiences. Others have found it to be an overrun nightmare with wall to wall people in the towns and traffic jams on the trails. Also, some trails are and will be closed and the weather in March can be iffy. If a storm blew in, walking the trails could be miserable and there's not much else to do.

CT is fine, but with only a week in Florence, I would stay in Florence and do day trips to Sienna, Assissi and Orvieto.

Regarding CT, I hope you've considered the weather. Don't expect daytime highs of more than 50°F or so, with a good chance of cloudy days. Plus it will be dark by around 6 pm. I doubt that the cruise hordes will be a problem that early in the year. I think they generally appear in April.

I agree that with so few days on the ground you'd be better off doing day trips from Florence; you have many options for DIY or day tours.

Some really good points from the previous posters, Maura. Once you subtract 2 days for flights on either end + a short, jet-lagged arrival day, you're left with 7 nights/6 FULL days on the ground to work with. Early March weather in the CT could be really sketchy, and you won't be hiking if it rains as the trails are not really safe when wet. Also, many hotels and businesses will be closed for the winter, and there's matter of daylight being short....

1 Fly
2 Arrive in Florence, train to a CT town. Partial day
3 CT
4 CT to Florence
5 Florence
6 Florence - day trip?
7 Florence- day trip?
8 Florence
9 Fly

I won't tell you to scrap the plan but I would think about whether you want to hunker down in a hotel room in a rainy, mostly closed Cinque Terre village should Mother Nature refuse to cooperate? If you spend the entire time in Florence, you would have the flexibility of doing day trips as weather permits: hop a train or bus on dry, sunny ones, and cruise the city's many indoor attractions if the clouds threaten. You haven't mentioned an interest in those attractions so I guess that's an outstanding question? Do you have any of Firenze's museums, churches, etc. on your list?

Honestly, I think that the Cinque Terre would be a bit far to do as a day hop, given the short amount of daylight.. That said, there is one train in the morning (7:36 AM) from Firenze Campo di Marte station that can have you in La Spezia in 1 hour, 35 minutes, no changes. From there, you'd take a short train ride to any of the 5 villages. Coming back, there's a train leaving La Spezia at 20:03 and arriving back in Florence in 1 hour, 37 minutes. This is absolutely the fastest method in and out of the region, and you'd have about 8.5 hours of daylight or so to do your exploring.

Whatever you do, you're going to want to be bunking in Florence the night before your flight.

You can go to the user-friendly Deutsche Bahn website to check travel time from Florence and figure out which destinations are practical day-trips. I count your time as really just six usable days, because the arrival day will probably find you sleep-deprived and jetlagged. I'd be inclined to stay put in Florence if you didn't have such a strong desire to go to the Cinque Terre. I hope the weather cooperates. March is rather early.

Siena, Lucca, Pisa, and a bunch of small towns are viable day-trips from Florence. For me, Assisi and Orvieto would be too much time on a train.

Bologna is a quick 35-minute ride on the Frecciarossa, and much of its very large medieval district is arcaded, so it could be a pleasant enough place to wander around even on a bad-weather day. However, fares on the Frecce trains are variable. You generally have to buy a non-refundable/non-changeable ticket quite early to snag the lowest fare. It appears that fares range from 14.90 to 28 euros each way, so that would be a rather expensive day-trip if you just walked up to the counter and bought a same-day ticket. There are much cheaper regional trains, but they also take about three times as long.

I like the idea of a one-day tour to see some of the smaller towns in Tuscany. You can get to individual towns by train/bus (often a combination), but a tour is more efficient, and hanging around waiting on buses might not be so pleasant in March.

I agree that March in the Cinque Terre is going to be dicey. If you hit weather, then it eliminates hiking and boat/water trips. Since you would love to take your daughter to Venice, I would suggest that you substitute Venice for the Cinque Terre. You can reach Venice from Florence in about 2 hours.

If you are arriving in the morning, you can take a train to Venice and spend your first 3 nights in Venice and then move back to Florence for the balance of the trip. Since you have only 7 real days of siteseeing, I would stay in Florence and take day trips.

I just came back from Italy with two college-age girls and they loved Venice and Florence. In both cities we took food tours and in Tuscany a cooking class. Once you settle on your itinerary, come back to the forum for specific questions on what to see/do.

Have a great trip,
Sandy

I vote with reconsidering CT. I have been twice, hiked once and the hiking is lovely. BUT, if it is cloudy or rainy you are stuck in tiny towns made for tourists. Sadly, my last visit saw a big change. I would only go with sun, late season and early morning access to stay ahead of crowds.

Skip Pisa, Lucca charming and worth the effort (and it rain the entire time I was there)!

Thank you all so much for your great suggestions! The early March timeline is tricky and unfortunate for the weather, but it is the Kid's spring break so our only option. We both are smitten with CT and might just take the risk. We will be at the end of our winter in Kansas and hoping that a little Italian cold will feel balmy. :) We appreciate your insight - what an amazing community! And we have a great list going in Florence as well as a cooking class in Tuscany that we have our eyes on!