sharich

Hi my husband and I are planning our first trip to Italy in August.
We have chosen as coach tour which spends 2 nts in Rome, 4 in Florence with day trips to Tuscany and Pisa and 2 nts in Venice. We then depart Venice for a Greek island Cruise which stops in at Bari in the South of Italy.
We plan to arrive into Milan on the 1st of August with the tour departing Rome on the 6th.
I don't think the 2 nights in Rome on the tour will be enough for us, so thought we should arrive into Rome on the 4th or 5th and spend a day wandering around on our own (we are big walkers), but we also want to do the Cinque Terra. Would 3 nights be enough there, and if so which town would be the best to base ourselves in.
Also has anyone travelled by train from Milan Airport to the Cinque terra and from there to Rome, who can tell me how easy/difficult it is?
Thank you
Sharon
(Australia)

kybourbon

Summer schedules usually start around mid-June, but won't change much from current schedules. Enter a date within the next week for all trains/prices to show.
http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/inde...0080a3e90aRCRD

Adoc86

I've gone from Milan to Rome via train and it was very easy, there were stops along the way but we didn't have to switch trains or anything. However, I left from the train station and not the airport in Milan, though I'm sure leaving from the airport isn't any more difficult.

2 nights in Rome isn't enough, so I think its good that you're extending it by a day or two.

DRJ

IMO, three nights in CT is plenty.

There is (or was?) a direct bus from Malpensa to Genoa train station. The train to CT from Genoa is about a half hour.

PeaceOut

Are you committed to the coach tour? Because it sounds like you might be better on your own. It is very easy to use the trains in Italy.

zeppole

Some information you might need:

If you use the Trenitalia website to look for trains, you need to spell Milan "Milano" and use the name of one of the five Cinque Terre towns as your destination (i.e., Riomaggiore)

The bus from Maplensa to Genova runs only once a day at noon and takes 3 hours.

Florence is a city in Tuscany.

It is incredibly hot everywhere in Italy in August, very much so in Florence (spelled Firenze by Italians). You need to consider that when you think about how much sightseeing and moving about you want to do each day.

It is very crowded everywhere you plan to go in August, so you need to make reservations ahead. It is quite pleasant by the sea, but all the towns of le Cinque Terre are set against very steep hillsides, with mainly staircases for streets. The sun in August is very hot, so unless you won't mind climbing all the time in the hot sun, you might want to book your hotel in a pretty but flat town nearby, on the train line (i.e., Levanto, Moneglia, Sestri Levante) and visit le Cinque Terre.

kybourbon

>>>If you use the Trenitalia website to look for trains, you need to spell Milan "Milano"<<<

You spell it Milan, Florence, Venice, etc. on Trenitalia. Just check the English version or use the link I provided above.

Jean

Is your tour "departing Rome on the 6th," or is August 6th the day you commence your tour with two nights in Rome?

If your tour begins with two nights in Rome (August 4th and 5th, departing the city August 6th), skip the Cinque Terre. You could spend the first night in Milan after your arrival, take a good walk to see the main sights in the city, and train to Rome the morning of the 2nd. If you choose to head directly to Rome on August 1st, it will take upwards of 5.5-6 hours from Malpensa to your hotel in Rome. Is that what you want to do after a long flight?

sharich

Thanks for all the information.
Jean,the first day our the tour is 06 August in Rome, and that is really just the day when people arrive and meet for a welcome drink and briefing, so that day is mostly free, so I thought we could get to Rome on either the 4th after visiting the Cinque Terra and have all day the 5th and 6th to explore on our own, or the 5th which gives us just the 6th to explore. And yes I agree we should spend the first night in Milan.

Peaceout, why do you think we should skip the coach tour? I thought it was a nice itinerary which showed us Tuscany with cooking class, market visits and the like, things my husband would probably not do if we were solo.
By the way it is 2 nts Rome, 4 nts Florence & 3 nts Venice, so not a rushed trip.

Zeppole, it is the crowds at Cinque Terra that have put me off slightly, but we are keen to do at least one of the walks, you say it is hot, are you from a cool or temperate climate? I am expecting it to be around 30 which we find quite pleasant (it is the last month of Autumn here and it is a glorious 20 today)

Thanks for all the sugestions
Sharon

zeppole

Hi, Sharich

I live in Italy, not far from le Cinque Terre. I spent most of my life in the US, roughly divided between NYC and California (mainly southern). I tolerate heat extremely well. In summertime here, I don't walk around in mid-day. I do errands in the morning, and don't go out again for any stair climbing (it's all stair climbing in this part of the world) until close to sunset -- and then maybe for a swim!

The sun is extremely fierce in le Cinque Terre. The trails have no shade. If you want to hike, you need to start out very early in the morning.

All of the coast in this area is busy and bustling in August, but le Cinque Terre -- which is five tiny towns -- is simply mobbed with foreign tourists. If you like pretty hikes but more solitude, you can hike in the Monte Portofino peninsula, either staying in Camogli or Santa Margherita Ligure, or stay in Moneglia, and hiking above it. From all these places you can day trip to le Cinque Terre, but if you are going there to hike, you must go early in the morning.

Here is a website you might find useful. Read the introduction as well as looking at the pictures. Note that it cautions against hiking in the mid-day during summer anywhere along the Ligurian coast, including le Cinque Terre:

http://www.50hikesintuscany.com/Cinq...an%20Coast.htm

zeppole

Here is a picture of Camogli

http://liguria.myblog.it/media/02/00/1417850365.JPG

Here is Moneglia

http://www.qviaggi.it/images/stories...1178408297.jpg

santa margherita Ligure

http://www.bellitalie.org/photos/lig...igure_8105.jpg