We are honeymooning in northern Italy in April 2014. We plan to visit the following cities each for a few days (total trip duration is 13 days):
Venice
Lake Como (haven't picked a city yet)
Piedmont wine country (possibly near Alba or Asti)
Cinque Terre

We are coming from Minnesota and I'm thinking we will either fly in and out of Milan or else fly into Venice and out of Milan. So far it looks like flying round trip out of Milan is a few hundred dollars cheaper than flying into Venice and out of Milan. Logistically I thought it would make more sense to fly in to venice and out of Milan and save us some time from going back and forth on the train, but that option is more spendy.

Does anyone have any recommendations or suggestion? Is it worth the money and time to just pay more and fly into Venice and out of Milan? I'm not sure how much a train ticket would cost us from Milan to Venice and back? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!

Also- if anyone has anything else to add or share regarding the cities we plan to visit I'm all ears!! Hotels? Things to do? Restaurants?

there was a similar thread recently with the same conundrum and most said to fly into Malpensa Airport and hop the train to Venice via Milan Centrale station - there are varying fares as to the type of train - fastest ones have deep discounts sometime but then they are train-specific and can't be changed nor refunded so if your plane is late and you miss the train you'r out of that ticket and have to buy a full-fare one to boot.

But eschew the fastest trains and there is a fairly flat fare structure on IC trains that run the same route but, yes, take a bit longer - but you can just get off the plane and head to the airport train station and buy a ticket for the next practical train. Go to www.trenitalia.com for schedules and pricing.

check out www.seat61.com + www.ricksteves.com + www.budgeteuropetravel.com for lots of practical info on Italian trains. And you will always be able to get on trains on arrival - have no fear about that - so so many trains on that route!

Fares:
Milano Malpensa airport Terminal 1 - Como: 9EUR
Como - Venice: 42 EUR
Venice 5Terre: 60 EUR
5Terre - Alba: 18 EUR
Alba - Torino: 5 EUR
Torino - Milano Malpensa airport (bus): 20 EUR

If the Venice/Milan itinerary were the same price, what would you do? It may be.

Hmmm ! Turns out to be the same---$1259---for best connections using Delta with one stop each way.
Does that help your problem?

This is really helpful. I wouldn't have thought to first go to Lake Como then Venice then Cinque Terre, Alba, Milano.

If the Venice/Milan itinerary was the same price and Milan/Milan I think I would do that. What do other experienced travelers think? I think convenience is worth some amount of money but I don't know if it really pays off or not.

Thanks so much for the feedback! Keep it coming

Do you search flights using Kayak.com or some other search engine?

Are you searching for open-jaw (multi-city) tickets? Because if you're just looking for two separate one-way tickets, that's always going to be more expensive. Usually, open-jaw tickets are much, if any, more expensive than a RT, especially if you're going to spend time and $$$ backtracking to your point of entry.

Como - Venice: 42 EUR
Venice 5Terre: 60 EUR>

what kind of trains are these for? There are several different type trains in Italy that charge different according to speed really - if it's an IC or regional train then they may be much slower than high-speed trains.

"what kind of trains are these for? "
the most common one's (standard fare):
Regionale plus Frecciabianca for CO - VE
Frecciaargento plus Regionale for VE - FI - SP
(can be checked in a few seconds in the Trenitalia timetable)

Palen:
"what kind of trains are these for? "
the most common one's (standard fare):
Regionale plus Frecciabianca for CO - VE
Frecciaargento plus Regionale for VE - FI - SP
(can be checked in a few seconds in the Trenitalia timetable)

Rose:

Fares MXP - MXP:
Milano Malpensa airport Terminal 1 - Como: 9EUR
Como - Venice: 42 EUR
Venice - 5Terre: 60 EUR
5Terre - Alba: 18 EUR
Alba - Torino: 5 EUR
Torino - Milano Malpensa airport (bus): 20 EUR
Total: 145 EUR

Fares VCE - MXP:
Venice Marco Polo airport - Venice San Marco: 15 EUR
Venice - 5Terre: 60 EUR
5Terre - Alba: 18 EUR
Alba - Como: 29 EUR
Como - MXP: 9 EUR
Total: 131 EUR

Delta is a major carrier from Minneapolis to Europe. Its website shows a multi-city ticket into Milan or Venice and return from the other city is within a few dollars of a simple round trip to either of those destinations. Saving the time and money of ground transportation back to your arrival city is hardly more "spendy".

Yes and gain virtually an extra day that would have been spent schlepping from Malpensa to Venice or v.v.

Kayak is OK, but I prefer using this one:
http://matrix.itasoftware.com/
You cannot book there but it does give you all of the options.
Use " multi-city". MXP and VCE are the airports.

Thanks so much for the additional information. I especially think the info neckervd provided about train pricing was helpful. When do you recommend I book my flight? Right now our trip is about 6 months away. Is it typical that prices drop as we get closer to 3-4 months prior to departing?

It's a personal decision based how much extra time and money you have, but for me, I have limited vacation time, and it would definitely be worth a couple hundred addiotional dollars to be able to fly directly to my first destinatio of my trip.

And nobody seems to have addressed it yet, but 4 locations in 13 days is a somewhat agressive plan, especially if that includes your arrival and departure days.

Is it typical that prices drop as we get closer to 3-4 months prior to departing?>

recently fares seem to make no rhyme nor reason as airlines cut back on capacity - more full flights at higher prices.

The week before and after Easter is a hectic travel period in Italy - flights during that time may be higher - though it's nice to be in say Rome during Easter it is also a big tourist season as many European schools have a week or two break.