which route?

Pamela, It's nice to see another poster from Vernon! If I'm reading your post correctly, you'll be travelling to Turin, Venice, Florence, Rome and Cinque Terre? What kind of time frame are you working with? All of the places you'll be visiting have good rail connections, so (IMO) that would be the easiest way to get around, especially via high speed trains which run at 300 kmH when they get going. You can research rail times using the Trenitalia website. If this is your first trip to Italy, you'll need to be aware of some potentially expensive "caveats" when using public transit (if you need details, post another note). One route you could consider would be Turin > C.T. > Venice > Florence > Rome > Turin. Here's some details (I used Monterosso for checking the C.T., since you didn't specify which of the five towns you'll be staying in): > Turin to Monterosso - as short as 3H:14M depending on which train you choose. > Monterosso to Venice - as short as 5H:18M, depending on train (a bit of a long trip, but not unreasonable). > Venice to Florence - 2H:05M via fast trains (reservations compulsory) > Florence to Rome - 1H:26M via fast train. > Rome to Turin - as short as 4H:05M, depending on train. Note that most cities have more than one station, so you'll need to be clear on which one you'll be using. In checking routes, I used Torino Porta Nuova, Venezia Santa Lucia, Firenze S. Maria Novella and Roma Termini. Also, on some of the routes, you could also use the new Italo high speed trains. In many cases, the Italo trains use the same stations, but in Rome they use Tiburtina rather than Termini. Good luck with your planning!

If I understand correctly you will be flying to Turin, Italy then visit those locations and finally return to Turin to fly back to the US? Is that correct? If that is correct the best itinerary (all by train) is (basically a clockwise loop): TURIN > VENEZIA > FLORENCE > ROME > (Pisa, La Spezia) > CINQUE TERRE > (Genova) > TURIN. The cities in parentheses (Pisa, La Spezia and Genova) are cities you will pass through with the train, but not necessarily change train in those cities, I just mentioned them to give you an idea of the route.