Travel destinations in and around Cinque Terre?

Try Lucca. About 1.5 hours from the CT by train. We did Lucca in one day, it was fine.

Lucca old town is just across the street from the train station, so it's very easy to catch your train.

May is nice, just plan for rain and maybe a chilly day. As always, no one can predict the weather...look at the east coast of the US this winter! Just plan ahead and be prepared, you will be OK.

We spent a week in CT (Manarola). Each day we hiked to one of the other villages. (There was a train running between the villages so each 'hike' did not need to begin in Manarola; we also did not need to 'hike' both ways.)

These hikes, and the visits to each of the CT towns, were the best part of our trip ... well, except for the wonderful views in the evening from our balcony. Each town is different -- has its own personality. I suppose there are places "outside" of CT one could travel to from CT as a base, but ... why?

Are you looking for nearby towns on the Ligurian coast or day trips out of the area? If you're looking for some other nearby towns, I would suggest Portovenere, Portofino &/or Camogli. As a previous poster suggested, Lucca is also nice if you want to get further out of town but it's a good 2 hrs each way from the CT. I don't know if that's farther than you're looking for or not. Have a great trip.

I was just wondering what people thought about spending a few days in the CT and then exploring a bit in any other areas on the way back to Milan? This will be my first trip to this area...if I don't spend the whole weekin CT how much time would you recommend to fully soak it in?! Thanks everyone for your comments so far!

Hi Kelley - Cinque Terre is Amazing BUT - In the same general area are Portofino(very pricy), Santa Margherita, Lucca, Viareggio, and Portovenere. All easily reachable and a lot of Fun. But, it doesn't really sound like you'll have a whole lot of time after Roma and Cinque Terre IF you do justice to those two!

Greg

Greg---won't be going to Rome this trip so more time for stuff in the northern part...thanks!

we took a boat tour with angelo. he and his wife were reccommended from this site. It was fabulous. also took shuttle boat to potovenere.

Hi Kelley,
I write from Manarola...early may is (usually) a great time to visit the Cinque Terre and I suggest you to spend some days just relaxing and moving around hiking and by boat ( follow the advice about rent a trip with "angelo's boat" depart from Monterosso).
In my opinion if you choose a 3/5 days stay in 5 terre you will enjoy it and you will not need to look for other destination around..

Kelly, I just bought RS Cinque Terre book and it talks about the towns Greg mentioned except Lucca. I think it was $8.95, very useful. I'd recommend it.