Best fly in and out of city? Venice, lake como, and Cinque Terre.....

There is no best. The best cities are major transportation hubs like Milan, Rome, Zurich, etc. Venice, Come, CT is an area and not a city, are small airports that will require a change of plane somewhere else. Switzerland is more than just a side trip. It could be just a convenient and cheaper to fly into Milan and train to Como then Venice.

There is nothing in my extensive travel experience that com[pares to flying into Venice, sitting on the right-hand side of the airplane, and seeing the lagoon and the island which we have studied for so long just below us.

I don't know if every flight approaches from that direction, but I would love to see that again.
If the prices work out, fly into Venice and out from Pisa. You can visit the Lakes in between. Pisa is the closest major airport to Cinque Terre.

If you have time to visit Switzerland, I can make some suggestions, but only if you say what time of year you will go, and how long you have for Switzerland. It is nott a day trip.

I am leaving Nov 25 and flying into Milan and out of Venice for $684 on delta. I could fly round trip out of Zurich for $595, or fly into Zurich and out of Venice for $640. But this is all based out of Tampa. I may find an amazing deal just because of supply and demand and everyone else trying to fly out of NYC or ATL get a more expensive ticket because the flight is direct from those cities. You just have to do what I do; Just plug in various cities into the equation and choose the cheapest option, or the most convenient one. I use expedia and then book the trip on the airline website. For awhile, I avoided buying tickets because Alitalia was a part of the trip.

I like Lola's suggestion to fly into Venice and return from Pisa. Kayak.com is always good for the first website to look at; right now Delta appears to have the best schedule and price from SFO.

The best cities to fly in and out of depend on the deal you can get and the connections available. For the three places you mentioned, the closest airports are:

Venice (Venice)
Lake Como (Milan--Malpensa and Linate)
Cinque Terre (Pisa)

Fly into one, out of another, and put the third in the middle to do by train.

And as others have stated, Switzerland is not a day trip. If you do fly in/out of Zurich add a couple of days for travel and sightseeing. But if the three areas of Italy you mentioned are the most important, then stick to flying in and out of Italy.

Thanks to All. My trip to Switzerland would be a few(maybe3) days if it fit, not just a day trip. I will take all trains in between Italy cities. Sounds
like into Vience and out of Pisa is best bet. Now what is the best for the trains?

Janet,
Fly into Genoa/Genova take the train to Ct about 90 minutes. Then on to Milan, Lake Como then on to Venice or visa/versa.