At this moment, all of the lower trails linking the five Cinque Terre villages are closed because of the risk of landslides. Two of the four trails have been closed ever since landslides in 2011, and it's unlikely they'll be opened any time soon. The other two are open periodically, but more and more often I see that they're closed. It's been a very rainy winter.

The upper trails are mostly open. These are trails more suited to serious hikers, requiring good hiking shoes and a good level of fitness. They should be avoided when the ground is wet.

I suggest that anyone thinking of visiting the Cinque Terre with the hope of walking the trails consult the official trail map before going:

http://www.parconazionale5terre.it/sentieri-outdoor.php

The lower trails connecting the villages are those beginning with 592. A red circle in front of the trail means it's closed.

" Venice - Ortisei- 4 nights (checking on trains and looks like you change in Bolzano - should we rent a car in Bolzano or is it easy to get car rentals in smaller towns like Ortisei?) Also considering Castelroto but may not be as good a location for hiking- sounds quaint though?"

May be you have a look a the timetable: https://www.sii.bz.it/en/siipdfOldtimetables

Bolzano/Bozen - Castelrotto: bus every 30 min from 7.10 until 20.10
Brixen railway station - Castelrotto: bus every hr from 7am until 7pm
Bolzano/Bozen - Ortisei: 42 buses daily (direct or with change at Waidbruck or Klausen)
Ortisei - Sella Pass - Pordoi Pass: 21 buses daily (half of them continue to Corvara or Canazei)
Ortisei - Gardena Pass - Corvara: 10 buses daily

You will need a car if this offer is not sufficient for you.

My wife and I stayed 4 nights at the Hotel Uhrerhof Duer, outside and overlooking Ortisei. Wonderful hotel, great family running the hotel, with quite good food. Definitely would return for a longer vacation/holiday. While we had a car, there is convenient bus service., with a stop quite close. Other travelers/hotel guests relied on this transportation to get around. The Dolomites are our favorite Italy destination.

I'd like to add that we also stayed at Hotel Uhrerhof Duer a few years back.....lovely lovely hotel with an unbelievably beautiful rose garden. Highly recommend it. The Dolomites will take your breath away. We also preferred Lake Garda over Como - maybe it was the poor weather we had but we found it to be very touristy. Our base in lake garda was Malcesine. The town of Limone was also a memorable day trip. Enjoy - N Italy is wonderful.

I traveled to Ortisei from Bologna via Bolzano, by train from Bologna and then by bus (bus station is very close to the train station) to Ortisei. I took the 170 from Bolzano to Ortisei and the 350 on my return from Ortisei to Bolzano. If you decide to go by bus, I’d recommend the 350 which made fewer stops.

Thank you everyone once again- we have finalized our itinerary and have added a few more nights. We will be using these nights in Lake Garda (instead of Lake Como) after seeing how close it is to our destinations.
I have all the bus, train and hotel references from this forum- so very helpful!
We are so excited to see this beautiful part of Italy!

Do you need hotels on Lake Garda? We had two excellent ones there.

HappyTrvlr, yes absolutely, I do need hotels in Lake Garda- as a matter of fact I have a few listed on this thread that I'm checking out but I really need them everywhere!
Would love to get your references. Also, specially interested in a place in Venice and Monteroso.
Thanks so much
Jeannette

I also enjoyed Hotel Grones in Ortisei last year.

Happy Traveler, I'll jump on this thread to say that I would be interested in your Lake Garda hotel recs. Some friends and I are starting to plan a trip in the area for next spring. Thanks

Have stayed in two Lake Garda locations. Recommend Hotel Laurin in Salo on west side of lake. On east side have stayed in Hotel Regina Adelaide in Garda. Can recommend both. Hotel Laurin is smaller and a bit back from that lake but with a wonderful view. The Regina is much larger, right on the lake but very nice also.

What's the most scenic of the three major lakes? All of them in their own way - I would say the northern tip of Lake Garda is as nice as any. In any case you can't go wrong.

A few more logistics questions as we finalize our trip- deciding on places to stay based on the most efficient train transportation ( willing to rent a car in the Dolomites but want to minimize bus travel).
Thinking of these two routes- any pros and cons please? All transportation below is based on available train travel from each city/town.

Option 1: Milan-CT 3nts -Florence 2nts- Venice 3nts- Bolzano (rent car and drive to Ortisei 4nts )- Return car in Bolzano and train to Peschiera del Garda 2nts (Lake Garda region has several options but this town has direct train from Bolzano or we could keep car to give us more freedom of where to stay in Lake Garda) - Milan
On above route- are we going a round about way to the Dolomites? Should we go to Cortina D'Ampezzo instead and stay there?
Option 2: Milan-Ct-Florence-Lake Garda-Bolzano then rent car and drive to Ortisei or Cortina D'Ampezzo?- then drive to Venice and drop car off (is this crazy driving into a large city like Venice?)- train back to Milan
Your comments and thank you so much!

Option 1:
I think a car would be much more useful for the Bolzano - Lake Garda - Milan leg than for Val Gherdeina (Ortisei).
You could then drive from Bolzano/Bozen to Lake Caldaro vineyards - Lake Molveno - Riva sul Garda and along the whole Western shore of Lake Garda (Gardesana occidentale) to Gardone Riviera - Salo - Brescia - Bergamo - Milan.

Option 2:
Rent the car at Verona if you really want to enjoy Lake Garda. I don't know where you will drop off the car at Venice. May be at the airport whcih is easy to reach by motorway A57 without entering any town.

In Venice, you can return rental cars at Piazzale Roma, which is easily reached by vaporetto or on foot from the center.

4hour drive from Val di Gardena to Venezia.

Thank you everyone- I am more comfortable now knowing that I could return the car in Venice and it should be quite painless. I will look into this option for this part of the trip:: Florence to Verona by train- Verona (rent car) visit Lake Garda (with car more freedom as you have pointed out)- then up to Dolomites (Ortisei or Cortina on to Venice (drop car off) 3 nts- then train to Milan
If anyone sees a potential problem with this plan please let me know. I realize we will be driving in the mountains but have read it's OK !
Love these inputs so very helpful