Where should we fly into Italy on our way to Cinque Terre.

You will probably find the most flight options to either Milan or Rome. Milan is a fine city to spend a day (and reserve ahead to see DaVinci's Last Supper), and then it's a 3-hour direct train ride to Monterosso in the Cinque Terre. Rome is much busier with sightseeing and is 4-5 hours by train. Pisa airport is closer to the Cinque Terre and Lucca, but may not have much code-shared service with your trans-Atlantic air carrier. Florence and Venice are also attractive options, with Venice requiring the longest train travel time (about 6 hours).

I would fly into Pisa. Lufthansa and Air france have easy transfers, and Delta has a direct flight from NYC in the summer. Stay in Pisa or Lucca to decompress, and then train to Cinque Terre.

Lately, prices flying in and out of Milan have been less than anywhere else in Italy. There are direct trains from Milan to Monterosso.

Spent 6 weeks in Italy this spring, wrapped up wonderfully with a couple of days in Cinque Terre (Riomaggiore), a couple of lazy days at Lake Como (Varenna), finally flying out of Milan. Upshot is I would highly recommend flying in and out of Milan. Fares are more reasonable than Rome, it is only 3 hours by train, and Milan is really under-rated, in my view. In addition to the many things recommended in Rick's books, consider a performance at La Scala or an AC Milan or Milan Inter Soccer match. We did both and they were a lot of fun. And if you don't want to spend time much time in Milan, Lake Como is a fantastic place to unwind at the end of a vacation.

Not knowing your tastes in hotels, I will offer that we stayed quite inexpensively (especially if you reserve ahead on-line) at the Hotel San Francisco. It's in decent shape, not spectacular but certainly adequate, and located a couple of miles from downtown but only 1/3 mile away from a couple of subway stops. It's also a mile or so walk from the main train station so connections are good. If you don't mind walking a bit and are comfortable with subway systems, it works out just fine. They include a great breakfast, and there are some great local restaurants nearby.

Big heads-up on Cinque Terre. If you plan to do any hiking and that is the major reason for your visit, check that the trails you are interested are open. We were there the same time of year as you are planning to be, and much of the coastal trail was closed. The upland trails were open. Some friends who were just there in August and ran into the same thing. It all depends on the danger of landslides due to winter rains, so it's hard to tell far in advance.

Good luck, no matter what it will be a great trip!

I have to vote to fly into Pisa and use Lucca as your first base before the CT.

http://www.pisa-airport.com/aeroporto_di_pisa_220.html
then train to Lucca in under 30 minutes.

This also depends on the other destinations you plan to visit. and where you plan on flying out of.

As Laural and Sam have said, flights into Milan could save you a substantial amount

I agree flying into Pisa is easiest for your first trip to Europe and "La Pace" hotel is a central location just one block walk from the train station in an area with shopping and restaurants. A day trip to Lucca is on my list for my next visit. Enjoy!

turn,

It would help to know where you're flying from, as your flight options will be different than mine. My suggestion would be to fly inbound to Florence, as that's a beautiful city with lots of history, and would be a perfect place to "lay over a few days" before continuing to the Cinque Terre. The Florence airport is smaller and therefore easier to navigate, and it's also close to the city so transportation is easier. There is an airport shuttle, but I've found it easier just to take a Cab, as they have a "flat rate" into the city.

It would also help to know which of the five Cinque Terre towns you'll be staying in. The best way to get to most places in Italy is by train, but you will have to do a bit of homework on that subject, as there are some potentially expensive "caveats" to be aware of when using public transit anywhere in Italy. There are numerous trains every day between Florence and the C.T., and here's one example. If you'll be staying in Monterosso, one of the easiest trips is a departure from Florence at 10:28, arriving Monterosso at 12:52 (time 2H:24M, one change at Pisa Centrale).

Note that many cities in Europe have more than one station, so it's important to know which stations you'll be using when you buy tickets, and in Italy you'll have to know the Italian names for stations (ie: Firenze SMN). You'll also have to be up-to-speed with "changes", which involves getting off one train, moving to another platform (often through a transfer tunnel called a "sottopassagio") and then boarding the next train. Many stations have several platforms with several trains on them, so the key is making sure that you move to the correct train. It sounds complicated, but it's not really that difficult.

As this is your first trip to Europe, I'd highly recommend reading Europe Through The Back Door prior to your trip, as it has a lot of good information on "how" to travel well in Europe. You may also find it helpful to pack along a copy of the Italy guidebook.

The question is: What would you like to see besides the Cinque Terre in the time you intend to spend in Italy?

If for example you want to see Rome and Florence, then it makes sense to fly to Rome, visit Rome, then Florence (by train) and from Florence go to the Cinque Terre. If on the other hand, you want to see Venice, Florence (and not Rome) then it makes sense to fly to Venice, then go to Florence by train, and from there to the Cinque Terre. If you want to visit all of the 3 famous cities (Venice, Florence and Rome) then I would suggest to fly to Venice first, then take the train to Florence, then go to the Cinque Terre for your 1 wk vacation there and lastly take the train to Rome from where you want to fly back home.

However I must say that I find it interesting that someone who is never been to Europe would choose, as a first thing to visit, to go to the Cinque Terre for a whole week. That would be like someone from Europe who has never been to America who would stay a whole week in Carmel, California.

In 2013 we flew from JFK directly into Pisa and spent four nights there. One of the days we took a day trip by train to Le Cinque Terre and it was very easy. We went to La Spezia and transferred to a train to Vernazza. From Vernazza we used a ferry to go up to Monterossa. The entire process was easy, easy.

IMHO, Le Cinque terre is jammed with tourists during the summer months, and even with Italian tourists. We were there in 1994 and the five little towns were very sleepy places that one might long to experience. Now, the places have numerous souvenir shops like other "discovered" places in Italy.

During our time in Pisa we stayed at the Hotel Bologna, which provided free transport from the airport to their property if you reserved through their website. The hotel was very nice and the staff was outstanding.

Buon viaggio,

Depends on where you are flying from and options into Europe. From California we fly SFO to Frankfurt then connected to Florence. From there we took the train to CT, which was easy, even being tired from our flight. I think I chose Florence over Pisa since Lufthansa had multiple flights everyday, so in the event our overseas flight was delayed, easy enough to get on the next flight.