robbydee

I'm headed to Italy in late March 2012. We'd like to include Corniglia in the trip, but only if it's warm enough to sit on a porch all day overlooking the sea.

Anyone traveled to Cinque Terre in March/April? What's the weather usually like?

Thanks

bobthenavigator

Heer are the facts---you be the judge:
http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/w...tovenere-Italy

zeppole

Global warming has made historic weather charts even more useless than they have been in the past, and that is giving more credit to historic weather charts than they deserve.

I had guests visiting this last March (2011) for two weeks, and they were only able on some days to comfortably eat lunch or dinner outdoors. it was great hiking weather, and they wore shorts for that and worked up a sweat, but when they took boat ridess, and once the sun went down, it was necessary to put on sweaters and jackets.

The biggest risk you face booking time in le Cinque Terre is getting completely rained out. If your personality allows, you can delay booking that part of your trip until two or three days before, when you can look on the internet and see what the weather is, that would be best. (In March, you run iltte risk of not finding accommodations, in Corniglia or an alternate spot somewhere completely different if you want to only go to a sunny place).

The weather on the Riviera is notoriously unpredictable. In fact, last night, friends and I (one of them a lifelong sailor of the Mediterranean), met for dinner at a seaside restaurant. We eventually elected to move inside it was so windy and cold -- yep, in July! - and all day I've been wearing a sweater and fighting the sniffles.

So if the ONLY way you'll go to le Cinque Terre is with a guarantee that the day you will be there will be ideal for sitting all day outdoors - sorry, it doesn't matter what month you pick. I've sat around in the sun in winter and run inside for warmth in the summer. The sudden changes in weather along the coast are why the region is so famous for great sailors and seaworthy yachts, and why Shelley drown not far from le Cinque Terre, near Portovenere, shortly after he moved there, when he assumed a sunny sky meant it was OK to go out boating.

robbydee

Zeppole ... thank you! Great information. My wife and I are going to Italy for 10 days with our 2 children over their Spring Break. We're going to Rome, Assisi (my daughter was named after St. Clare), Tuscany and Cinque Terre. But Cinque Terre might be tough for them if it's cold. Not sure what we'd do other than hike, which I love, but Little St. Clare doesn't.

I like the idea of staying flexible ... not sure how widespread weather fronts are in Italy ... when it rains in Cinque Terre, I assume it rains in Pisa, for instance.

PalenQ

waz there last January - and it was in the high 60s - warmer than normal for sure but like zeppole says weather is very variable - sea climate so can't depend on being that warm even in March but seems your chances are good. If I were you for folks that sound not very ambulatory I'd hop the shuttle trains between the five Lands and experience each and laze around the port or beach, etc.

All day on a balcony overlooking the Garden of Eden would bore me but different strokes for different folks!