3 weeks northern Italy advice
 

Fellow Travelers
My wife and I are planning a return to Italy during September 2016. We would like to divide the time between the east and west coasts. Our thoughts are to spend the first half of the visit in Verona where we will be able to day trip to Venice and Milan. The second half the trip, my wife would like to visit the Cinque Terre. Does anyone have suggestions for their favorite towns to stay in or outside of the CT with the idea of day tripping? We will have a car for Verona. For the CT, we may have car if staying outside of the area and use local train to visit, ie Camogli.
Thank you

Consider staying in Sestri Levante, Rapallo or Camogli, all of which have a different character and are enjoyable in their own way. For Camogli you must book a place with guaranteed parking. If you are hoping to rent an apartment, you will find it easier to do so Rapallo or Levanto.

Unless you are planning to visit vineyards or small towns around Verona, I am not sure you need need a car for this trip. It is not much fun to drive into Milano, and obviously you can't do anything but park on the outskirts in Venice. Driving between Verona and the Italian Riviera is just a long haul without a lot of reward. If you don't mind switching in the Milan train station, you might as well take the train and have less stress. There are some trains that depart Milano that require no further changes until you reach Camogli, Rapallo or Sestri Levante.

Just realized my post might be clear with respect to parking:

I prefer the first 3 towns I mentioned, but if you are looking to rent an apartment, then it makes sense to also look in Levanto. It is a perfectly nice town with plenty of charm, and its a great location for visiting le Cinque Terre. Because it is so close, you will find a lot of foreign tourists there in September. If you prefer a higher ratio of Italians to tourists, then Sestri Levante is best for that. But it is harder for a foreigner to figure out the rental market there. There are nice hotels & bbs, however.

We had a great stay in Lerici when we visited the CT. We were able to visit CT by boat, and had a car which was not hard to park in Lerici which allowed us to visit other places like Sarzana and the Carrara marble mines ( a highlight for me). Here is a link to my trip report that includes pictures:

http://www.fromhometoroam.com/2012/0...-coast-lerici/

sandralist and jgg, thank you for the information. I will definitely check out Sestri Levante, Rapallo, Levanto and Lerici. We tend to stay in rental appartments and bbs vice hotels. Also, thanks jgg for the link to your report.