Toni

Russ...thanks so much for clarifying the info...<BR><BR>I'm going to pin you down now :0)<BR><BR>What would YOU suggest knowing now, that we will have a car (but don't necessarily have to use it) and would like to have access to the hiking etc. What would be a good town to stay in for interesting sites and views (we DON'T like to shop) and do you have a hotel you prefer?

Toni

Another problem/question...I just looked at mapblast and it takes 8 hours to drive from Lake Como to Portofino area. <BR>This is to much driving for us from one point to the other...any other suggestions?

russ i

Toni,<BR><BR>This is a very difficult question. What I would like is not necessarily what you would like, but I will give it a try. <BR><BR>If the quality of the hotel and service is really important, and you can afford it, stay at the Splendido in Portofino. My mother stayed there once and loved it. Portofino is, of course beautiful, and you are only 5 minutes away from Santa Margherita, in which is charming to stroll around, even if you don’t shop. If not the Splendido, then maybe someone out there can suggest another in Portofino or Santa Margherita. Anyone have a suggestion?<BR><BR>If hiking the trails of the Cinque Terre is your priority, then I would suggest staying in Monterosso, the largest of the Cinque Terre villages. You can find hotel info at:<BR><BR>http://www.cinqueterre.it/index_e.htm <BR><BR>There are two 4 star hotels there, however, I have never stayed at either of them. I have always just gotten a basic room in Vernazza (one town to the south); but I speak Italian, which helps, so I would not recommend that for you.<BR><BR>Keep in mind that all of the Cinque Terre towns are living, breathing villages, much less touristy than Portofino, but also less "service oriented" as a result. Unlike Portofino, the CT is not about flashy yachts and luxury hotels. I find this refreshing. Some do not. It depends on what you are looking for. What makes the CT ideal for me is that you can hike to one town, then take the train to the next, then take a boat back, or any combination of the above. I like the different perspectives. <BR><BR>I would not base myself in Portovenere. I did a MapBlast search and found that it is 1 ˝ hours from Portofino by car, and 1 hour from Monterosso al Mare (the complete name of the town). You could, however, stop there on your way to Pisa/Siena, but it will make for a long day. <BR><BR>Now, about the Como to Portofino drive –don’t know how you searched, but in the first box, I selected “Italy” for country and “Bellagio” for the town (my favorite at Lake Como). In the destination I selected “Italy” again for the country and “Portofino” for the city. I came up with a 3 ˝ hour drive. You might want to look closely at the map at the bottom of the directions to be sure that your starting and stopping points are where you had in mind. There are often several cities with the same name in various regions of Italy, so you might have to put in the full name, as in “Monterosso al Mare” instead of just Monterosso.<BR><BR>Let me know how you fare. I’ll try to help if I can.<BR><BR>Russ<BR>

Toni

Russ...Splendido looks magnifico but in the Frommers guide it states that for a double room it is 700+ dollars a night. I would like to mosie around though.<BR><BR>I don't think I did the search on mapblast correctly. I typed in "Italy and then Lake Como" and "Italy and Portofino" and 8 1/2 hours is what I came up with...(obviously wrong) I'm relieved to know that it is incorrect as 8 hours of driving Is NOT what I had in mind. <BR><BR>I'm still a little unsure about the geography of the: Portofino/<BR>Portovenere/Monterosso/Vernazza/Santa Margherita areas...<BR>I'll look at some maps and see if I can't educate myself a bit more...<BR>THANK YOU EVER SO MUCH for your time and patience!!!

Surlok

The drive from Como ( at least the south part of it) to Portofino definetely is NOT 8 hours, since the drive Milan/Nice is 4, 4 and a half hours, and Como ( the south part of it) is no more than 40 minutes drive from Milan.<BR><BR>If you're also planning to tour the Northeast of Italy, I'd suggest you to visit Bassano di Grappa, Asolo, Trento and Treviso, besides Verona, the Garda lake and Bolsano ( Alps).

Joyce

Toni,<BR>I've been reading this thread of questions/answers with great interest, as my husband and I will be travelling with another couple to the same areas you mentioned next month - May3-May16. It is also our first trip to Italy, and we wanted to see as much as possible yet not get exhausted. Don't know if it will work that way (!), but here is our itinerary.<BR>Fly into Milan (7:55 AM), take shuttle bus to Milan, then train to Varenna on Lake Como for overnight and some rest. The next afternoon, take train to Florence, where we'll pick up rental car for a week. Drive about 20 mi SW of Florence, where we're staying in a restored 12th century castle for 1 week, and will take daytrips in Tuscany. We liked this option, because we wouldn't be living out of a suitcase the whole time and could settle into a place. Plan to see Florence 1 day, Siena, San Gimi 1 day, Montalcino, Pienza and Montepulceano 1 day, the heart of Chianti 1 day, drive to Cinque Terre early 1 day and walk from 1st to 2nd town, then take boat to see rest, will get back to castle that evening. That still leaves us a day to just stay close to our home base and rest up! Then we drop the car off at Florence and take train to Rome where we'll stay 2 nights. From there, we take high-speed train to Venice for 1 day and overnight, then train to Milan for final night before flying out next day. We're going to get a kilometric train ticket that should do us for all the train travel, except for the short run between Milan-Lake Como. We'll get one for each couple, and will have to upgrade for the high-speed to Venice. We just prefer not to have to drive in or out of any of the major cities, but want the freedom of a car in Tuscany. If this works, I'll write a report when I get back! If it doesn't, I guess I'll still write a report about the things that went wrong!!!

Toni

your itinerary sounds wonderful...thanks for information and let us know how you fare...have a great trip.

Dayle

Dear Toni, <BR>We were in Italy for 3 weeks last May and covered some of the same towns you are interested in. We flew into Milan - for us 1 day there was enough. Stayed at the Locanda Antica dei Mercanti just a couple blocks from the Duomo. It was wonderful and reasonable. Trained to Lago Maggiore &amp; stayed at Hotel Verbano on Isola Pescatore. Excellent. We trained to Siena, picked up a car and drove 20 minutes up the Chianti highway to Hotel Residence San Sano which my friend and I agreed was the best location of our trip. Absolute paradise. Drove down to Orvieto, dropped the car &amp; trained up to Santa Margherita Ligure with a 3 hour stop in Pisa. We loved Santa Margherita &amp; stayed at the Hotel Laurin right on the marina. It's a Best Western property. Did day trips from there to Portofino by boat and had a long lazy expensive lunch w/ lots of wine! Great, expensive shops too. Also trained to the Cinque Terra &amp; hiked 4 out of 5 villages w/ a lunch stop in Corniglia. All our hotels, except the Laurin, were found in Fodor's Hotel &amp; Inns of Charm &amp; Character and were about $100/nt US + or -. All were 4 star and wonderful. We had a hard time choosing our favorite, but it was San Sano overall. We stayed 3 or 4 nights everywhere &amp; did day trips from there. Driving was no problem, but don't get stuck in a hilltown! Be sure to park in the first public lot to you before getting into the town itself. (Our only mistake the entire trip - and we're from southern California too.)

Dayle

PS: would also highly recommend flying into Milan &amp; out of Venice. My airfare was actually cheaper that way &amp; I saved myself considerable down time by avoiding the return 3 hour train trip. Venice's Leonardo Di Vinci airport is literally a breeze, and it's fun to take a boat to the airport.

deepa

We stayed at S.Margherita Liguare at the Hotel Jolanda for $100 a night (with breakfast)- very nice and well located. But when we walked to Portofino, we came across Hotel Piccolo, set in a cove with its own little private beach. Looked more luxurious but was in the $150 range. Looked special. Was right next to the bus stop about half way between S.M. Liguare and Portofino. Hope this helps.

martha

I may need to post a separate question on this, but I notice that Russ wrote that the Cinque Terre hike from one end to the other can be done in about 4 hours, excluding snack and meal breaks. I have read so many conflicting things about how strenuous the hiking is or is not and how long it takes, that some places are narrow ledges with no railings...I can only assume that people are hiking different paths. Can anyone help with this? I will be there in October for three nights and would like some help on this. I would prefer to avoid the narrow ledge trails.

russ i

Martha, <BR> <BR>Here is some info I copied off of the cinqueterre.it website. Hope it helps: <BR> <BR>C.A.I. route number 2: from Riomaggiore to Monterosso (Sentiero Azzurro along the coast overlooking the sea). <BR>Walking time 5 hours. The route starts from the Railway Station square and proceeds along the Via dell'Amore to Manarola (30 minute-walk). From Manarola it rises slightly then levels off along a lovely bridle-path and arrives at Corniglia Railway Station. From here it continues on to the centre of the village climbing up some steep steps (1 hour). From Corniglia the route maintains more or less the same level, with some difficult points along the way and eventually drops down to Vernazza (1 hour and 30 minutes). This is where the longest and most difficult part of the pathway starts and it is important to take extra care here because of frequent landslides. Here the route reaches a height of 180 meters and goes down sharply to Monterosso, finishing near the Town Hall (2 hours). <BR> <BR>

Dayle

Re the Cinque Terre hike, it always depends on your hiking experience. I have done a lot of backpacking in the Sierras of California, so the hike along Cinque Terre was a good hike and not scary at all to me. Some of the hike is along very steep coastline with drop offs of hundreds of feet. Other parts are through olive groves more inland. There are a few spots on the way to Vernazza where the path is narrow and you need to use caution and watch your step. You should not be gawking at the scenery or backing up taking pictures like tourists in a cartoon. The stairs to Corniglia are strenuous. We started in Riomaggiore around 11am on a May morning. We had a long lunch in Corniglia. It was hot & humid so by the time we got to Vernazza we were defintely DONE and ready for some wonderful gellato - so was everyone else. The gellatteria (SP?) at the end of the trail was jammed - and wonderful. Take good hiking shoes, a hat, sunscreen and start earlier than we did! You'll love it.