I would prefer smaller towns near Florence but I have no idea what towns make sense. Wine is also a big factor for us, so any winery suggestions would be fantastic.

Any spas or hot springs anywhere near our visiting areas?

We are both fit and can handle hills and such, so we don't have many limitations.

If you are flying out of Milan, I suggest you save Lago Maggiore for the end of your trip. You can stay in Stresa and drive to Malpensa, or take a bus from Stresa if you have already ditched your car.

So upon arrival in Milan, take a train directly to Torino. See the town, then rent a car, and drive to the vicinity of Ventimiglia. There are fantastic hilltowns right near there -- Apricale, Perinaldo, or even Dolceacqua, which you might enjoy for a stop. If you'd rather be right on the coast, then Bordighera or Menton might be nice places to stay.

After seeing Provence, you are looking at a solid 5 hour drive to the Riviera Levante -- more like 7 hours if you le Cinque Terre is your target. You might want to overnight in a place like Finale Ligure or Noli, just for a nice dinner before moving on.

I suggest that you plan to stay in a town like Levanto or Bonassola, right near le Cinque Terre, where you will more easily find parking, and use the trains to visit le Cinque Terre.

If the weather is lousy, I suggest you cancel your le Cinque Terre stay and give yourselves extra days in Tuscany.

The town of Montecatini Alto is a spa town that might be the perfect alternative for you to staying in Florence.

http://www.welcometuscany.it/tuscany/pistoia/montecatini-alto-high-town-funicolar-station.htm

I don't think you have time for Lago di Garda and "that church" in Tuscany is too far south (it's in the val d'Orcia near Montalcino) for you to get there and back to Milan unless you cut out something else completely.

You can use the via Michelin website to give you some idea of how ambitious your road trip is. Of your 17 days, you will spend about 5 of them just getting from one destination to another -- and you will be zooming past a lot of photogenic areas of fascination in the Piemonte, the Riviera, northwestern Tuscany.

Were it me, going in April, I would eliminate Provence and the Italian Riviera and instead visit Torino, Parma and northwestern Tuscany (from which you could make a jaunt to the Italian Riviera if the weather was nice. The huge flea/food market in Ventimiglia is a very untouristy-sight and perhaps more interesting because of it, but you might find it just as interesting to visit markets in, say, Bologna, for a morning.

A couple of things stick out with your plan. I wouldn't drive all the way from Torino to Ventimiglia just to visit a market. There are much more attractive places on the western Italian riviera than Ventigmiglia and they will all have markets. Then, if you're not really interested in the French riviera sites then why even go to France?

If you look at a map you'll see the main highway heading south out of Torino goes to Savona. I lived in this area for 6 months a while back and just west of Savona there are some beautiful towns and villages along the coast and in the mountains just inland from the coast that have almost never seen an English speaking tourist and are more or less completely overlooked.

I'll suggest that instead of going to Ventimiglia and the French riviera you would make better use of your time exploring this area of the Italian riviera known as the Riviera delle Parme.

Last year I explored a coastal and inland area just west of Savona so let me outline something for you to consider. The coastal towns of Noli, Varigotti, Alassio and Finale-Ligure are beautiful. Just behind Finale-Ligure is the ancient village Finalborgo. Head in-land by car and experience some scenic mountain drives and charming ancient villages like Toirano, Verezzi, Castelvecchio, Zuccarello and the abandoned hillside village of Balestrino. The villages I named are all beautiful but are just the tip of the iceberg in this area.

In order not to get too long winded I'm giving some links to tourist booklets for that region that can be downloaded. They are in English and is each several pages long but you can probably have them mailed to you or pick them up in tourist office (like I did) when you arrive. These booklets are packed with info about what to see and do in the area, where to stay, and where you can experience all the local wine and cuisine and a lot of it is astoundingly cheap. There are many agroturismo places in the area where you can eat 5 course meals (wine included) for about 15 euros or less.

http://www.borghitalia.it/html/borgo_it.php?codice_borgo=281

http://www.italiantouristoffice.se/sv/docs/93.pdf

http://www.italiantouristoffice.se/sv/docs/91.pdf

http://www.italiantouristoffice.se/sv/docs/92.pdf

http://www.italiantouristoffice.se/sv/docs/90.pdf

Then you can head east down the coast towards Cinque Terre and there are many well known coastal towns east of Genoa that you could visit such as Camogli, Portofino, Santa Margherita, Sestri-Levante etc. Then head on to Florence.

Although this is the popular tourist route there is endless unexplored and unvisited territory in this region in the mountains just inland from the coast which is quite scenic.

I think with 17 days if you plan on visiting Milano, Lake Maggiore, Turino, Cinque Terre and Florence you've already used up a lot of time so I think it makes more sense to stay in Italy to make the best use of whatever time is not allotted to the other places in Italy you want to visit.

Is this the chapel[capella] you mean?

http://www.slowphotos.com/photo/showgallery.php?cat=3827

We are headed to Noli so this is very helpful. It was difficult to find much information on the area.

You would be well advised NOT to drive through the cities along the Côte d'Azur. The traffic is fierce, anad parking is a challenge--and very expensive. Instead, base yourself in Nice and take the train or bus to visit other spots.

Why the market in Ventimiglia? If going to CT from the Provence, why not do it then rather than on the way to the Provence. From Torino I would via Briançon and Sisteron to get to the Van Gogh area.

HappyTrvlr - If you are going to Noli those villages I mentioned are all nearby and well worth visiting. But look carefully in those on-line docs I linked to and you will literally find hundreds of great farms, wineries and other agroturismo places to eat and sample the local specialties of the region. The more you read them the more you'll realize that you could spend a lot of time in just this small area.

@bobthenavigator--yes, that is the chapel

Thank you for all of the kind replies and fantastic advice.
This is my husband’s first time in Europe, so I want to dabble a bit and possibly get a little more detailed with one area in the future. We do know we don’t want to be going, going, going the entire time and want to just take in the scenes and sounds.
One of my top priorities is to go to Provence (Arles and Saint Remy) because I am related to Theo van Gogh’s wife, Johanna, so that is something I will not remove from my trip. I would rather remove Cinque Terre than Provence. As I said previously I don’t necessarily have to go through Nice and Monte Carlo, but I thought if I was in the area and had to go through I should probably see it. If anyone has thoughts on easier routes, please let me know.
As for Ventimiglia, I heard from someone I know locally that goes there all the time that the Friday market is great, especially if you like handbags. If someone knows of a better one, please let me know.
My family is from Piasco, south of Torino, so if anyone has tips on that area I would appreciate it as well.
Thanks for the chapel advice. I didn’t know how far south it was so it sounds like I should skip it this time. The more posts I see it seems like I want to see more of Tuscany than Cinque Terre. I just have always seen the picturesque views of Cinque Terre and thought they were magnificent. I am not a huge fan of Venice (too Disney-like for me, but nice for one day), so would anyone say the Cinque Terre area is similar? I have no idea, but if that is the case I can skip it.
If anyone knows of a nice hike in the Alps so we can get that “feel” that would be great. Since my husband hasn’t see the Alps that is why I added Lake Maggiore and Torino. If anyone has any other suggestions, please let me know.
Does anyone have any advice on hotels in Milan (at the end of the trip), Arles, Torino and Tuscany?

Le Cinque Terre is terribly touristy, and filled with crowds. There are charming hideaways on the Italian Riviera, but le Cinque Terre is a mass tourist magnet.

I don't blame you for not wanting to part with Provence.

If you are willing to get off the beaten track, combining Piemonte with Provence and some of area around Ventimiglia would make for a very lovely trip. You could even spend a little time in the spa town of Acqua Terme. You should probably carefully research a trip to Tuscany before you undertake it because quite of bit of it is Disneyfied, including around "that church". You will hear howls of protest at that characterization -- but then you also hear howls of protest at any negative comments about what has happened to Venice.

There is beautiful mountain scenery to the west of Piasco, although some of the high roads will be inaccessible in late April due to snow. Here is a picture of nearby Saluzzo

http://www.cicloposse.com/foto_immagini/56.saluzzo.jpg


The lower hills east of Piasco, near Cherasco, is considered one of the most scenic parts of the Piemonte, and is noted for its great wine and food.

I urge you to consider splitting your time between your connections to Provence and your connections to Piasco, and letting serendipity take care of the rest. Skip Tuscany until you've had a chance to figure out what you want from it, and are better positioned to see it.

Acqui Terme is a lovely town and there is some very scenic countryside in that area heading west from there towards Alba. South of Torino and near Piasco you might consider Saluzzo. Here are some photos:

http://tinyurl.com/7txhwb2

Bookmarking

FrenchMT,

Thanks for correcting my typo of Acqui Terme

Actually, I hadn't picked up on your spelling error but was merely seconding your recommendation.

Further, I so hadn't thoroughly read your post that I missed the fact that you had also recommended Saluzzo. And I was also going to suggest heading west from Piasco but I figured I'd be sending the OP too far off their track to get to Provence.

I was also going to suggest the OP take the N20 south but when you get to the French border it is interrupted by a mountain pass that connects the French and Italian sides of the N20. If think they're working on a tunnel there but no idea of the completion date. If the OP gets over that pass it brings them into Ventimiglia and it's a very scenic drive.

Going to Briançon will definitely get you into the Alps.

For a trip in late April, it is important to check in advance whether mountain passes or Alpine roads are typically open by that time of year. Tunnels should be okay, but personally I just don't know about those roads in Spring.

We'll be in The Alps next week. Does anyone have any updates on the conditions? We a re driving from Milan through Briançon down to Provence. We arrive in Milan on Monday.

The Alps are a huge place. You need to be able to do your own weather checking. Do google searches for weather forecasts for the specific towns you are hoping to visit.

FWIW, in 2010, Hub and I based in Menton and the hotel (see link below) had a van trip to the Ventimiglia market. It took us all morning to walk up one side and back down the other of the rows of stalls, and we didn't see one thing that begged to be bought. I wasn't looking for purses so you might get lucky.

The van left us on the "old city" side of the Roia River and we took a foot bridge directly to the food end of the market. I could see lots of parking to my right. Get a good map and with your back to the old city, find the regular market and the parking was to the right but closer to the water. Traffic in Ventimiglia was heavy and there appeared to be quite a few "rookies" looking for a place to park and I think they didn't go far enough. I was very glad to have someone else driving us.

If you do go, you could easily make it part of your drive back to Italy along the French Riviera.

http://www.princess-richmond.com/uk/index.php

Enjoy your trip!

MplsJAC,

Just to be clear, I wasn't "scolding" you for asking about weather. I am trying to underscore for you that over this weekend and while you are traveling, you need to be looking a daily weather forecasts if you plan to drive in the Alps.

April sees a lot of changing weather, including snow and blinding fog in mountain passes. You need to consult forecasts and local people regarding the routes you plan to take on the days you plan to take them.

If you aren't carrying your own internet connection, don't just go driving out in the morning to higher elevations without asking people to help you find out what the weather is where you are going. Also, when looking at a map, be sure you understand which roads climb to higher elevations before taking them, and how long the actual drive is. Some places look close on a map but the road is so winding, it takes a long time.

Remember it gets dark earlier in mountainous places.

Have a safe trip!