Paris/Switzerland/Italy/French Riviera - REVISED ITINERARY feedback pls !

Five in five is no fun. I'd skip Pisa (at least) and probably stay in one or two places. San Gimignano makes a romantic sleepover.

So many day trips argue for a car, but you have to balance that with the hassle of...having (and parking) a car. You can reach these destinations by rail & bus, but it takes longer.

Regarding Rome > Naples > Sorrento, it is definitely not necessary to stay overnight in Naples if your destination is Sorrento. It's a simple mater to take the train from Rome to Naples, then (go down one level and walk a short distance within the same train station) to catch the local commuter train (the "circumvesuviano") to Sorrento. Easy, quick, no big deal.

You can take the train to Sicily (Palermo). They put the train cars on a ferry (quite strange, I thought, but it was fine).

Given the length of your trip, I'd consider giving more time for Sicily. I did a lightning trip around Sicily in about 4 days, and wished we had had more time. I'd try to steal a day or two from other locations and add 2-3 more days to Sicily. If you like ruins, there are lots of great ones there. You'll want a car for getting around Sicily (be careful driving).

As David mentioned above, I'd probably take a day (probably from Sorento) and tack that on to Sicily. The amount of time you have for the rest of Italy looks nice, giving a good amount of time to just settle and see and do.

For Tuscany, basing yourself in one city is nice. With 5 nights, you could use two cities, maybe Florence and Siena, and day trip from there. But trying to squeeze in all those cities in 5 days is a bit ambitious. I basically did a whirlwind several years ago of Pisa (mostly to change trains), Lucca, to Florence in a day, and wished I had more time in Lucca (had 4 more days in the rest of Tuscany). Pisa is a great example of Romanesque architecture, but then again, you will see a lot of that in Tuscany. Getting from town to down, be it by car, train, or bus, can eat up a bunch of time.

The leg from Stromboli to Cinque Terre is odd. That's a tough spot to go from, especially with what you are trying to do. I would say link the Cinque Terre to your stay in Tuscany and do a tiny bit of backtracking, but you are trying to work your way to the French Riviera, so it makes sense.
If you are determined to visit Stromboli, you could do a few options, all requiring a lot of travel time. You could ferry back to Sicily, fly to Milan, then train to Cinque Terre via Genoa. Or, ferry to Naples, train to Rome, train to Cinque Terre via Florece.

Pretty tough though, especially since the rest of the rough itinerary looks pretty good.

Adam, what do you think of my revised itinerary ? I've dropped Pisa from the Tuscany part of the trip and added it as a connection point between Sicily & Cinque Terre. I was pretty impressed with myself for finding the flight with Ryan Air !

Hi David,

I've added another night into Sicily so it's now 5 nights and I'm sure I could sneak another night or two in as well. There's still 2 years to go until this trip ! Also due to your advice, I've dropped Naples and will just do a day trip there ex Sorrento.

What do you think of the revised itinerary ?

Steven, what do you think of my Stromboli to Cinque Terre leg now ? I know that I could get the ferry/train from Reggio Calabria to Sicily but thought it easier to get it to Stromboli and then go onto Sicily from there and then fly to Pisa, see the tower, then continue to Cinque Terre...what do you think ?