Cinque Terra in February...open itinerary?
 

We will be travelling late Feb/early March '05.
Florence---3 nights
Siena------7 nights
Rome-------4 nights

We would love to see Cinque Terra and are considering leaving the first night out of Florence open. If weather is good, we could make CT reservations b/4 leaving Florence. One night in CT and on to Siena.

If weather is bad, we would call our Siena hotel and see if we could come a day early. Even so, I would think we wouldn't have too much trouble finding something for one night in late Feb.

Do you think this is a good risk to take?

CT probably won't be extremely pleasant in February but if you like the outdoors in all seasons, it shouldn't be a problem. However, I would take a day from Siena rather than from Florence. There is much more to see in Florence and 3 days is not too much time.

I wasn't very clear. The CT night would be taken out of the Siena segment, leaving 6 nights in Siena.

Even is the weather's nice, I wonder if CT would be "closed down" at that time of year.

I haven't been to Cinque Terre in February, but husband and I were there this past April, when it was very rainy and the path from Manarola to Corniglia was closed because of slippery mud, etc. Nevertheless, we still enjoyed it. We stayed in an apartment in Manarola and got from one town to the other by train--also took the paths a couple of times. CT is charming and unspoiled, and when we were there, full of avid hikers going between the towns and up and down the steep terraced hillsides. Have you googled Cinque Terre? It probably has a website that'll give you seasonal info. Restaurants we liked included La Scogliera in Manarola and one in (I think) Monterossa called Miky's.

Just checked and the website is www.5terre.com. You can click to get the English version and it has a forum with posts in English and other languages.

The Cinque Terre never closes down. I have been there in late February/early March and it is fine. The weather is rainy and windy as well; however, you might be surprised by a couple sunny days interspersed in between. If leaving from Siena, I would depart early in the morning for the CT to allow enough travel time. You will undoubtedly have stops in Florence and La Spezia before catching a local train up to the CT.

Thanks, oyster.

We'll be leaving from Florence, so that makes it even more simple. Like I said, if the weather looks good we could call for CT reservations before leaving Florence. Do you think it's risky to leave that night un-reserved?

You are fine without a reservation during that time of the year as there are very few tourists (if it was the height of summer, I would say yes, you needed a reservation) but you should be fine. If I were you, target 1 CT town that you want to start in (I recommend Riomaggiore) and then go from there. I was presuming you are taking the train and was basing the itinerary on that (From Florence to the CT, it is approx. a 2.5 to 3 hour train...e.g. there is a daily 8:01 am train departing Florence on Feb 26,27,28 2005 that goes through La Spezia (9:55 am), arriving in Riomaggiore at 10:16 am.) If you drive, there is a large car park in Riomaggiore where you can leave your car. Then you could walk the Via Dell'more to Manarola (takes ~25 mins), then take trains to the remaining 3 towns (Corniglia, Vernazza, and Monterosso) at your leisure, stopping to have lunch in one of the towns. From the train station in Corniglia, there is a hillside of steps to climb up from the train station to get to the town part. That alone is good exercise! Enjoy the Cinque Terre, it will be beautiful.