Hi,
I just wrote this same letter last night but it seems to have been lost in cyberworld. So, I'll try again.

We are going to Italy for 10 days in end of October. We plan to spend 2 nights in Rome and 2 nights in Florence.

My daughter spent a few hours in Santa Margherita several years ago and hasn't stopped talking about it since. We will have about 5 days after we leave Florence. Is it easy to get there by public tranport? How much time should we allot there and what other towns should we try to go to on our way back to Rome for our departure? Lucca? Sienna?

Any suggestions for hotels in Florence or Santa M? Has anyone stayed in any of the monasteries?

Thanks for any and all help - the more books I look at the more confused I get. You folks always seems to know a lot.

Actually your first thread is at #49 right now. Also, just click on your name and it will pull up all threads you have posted on.

Tom

Santa Marguerita is nice. Porto Fino is right around the corner. Home of the rich and famous and my description 4 years ago "home of the $4 diet coke in a can". If there is a train from SM to Cinque Terre you may want to do that.

Sestri Levante is not too far. It depends on what you like to do. We like to walk, people watch and talk to the people that live in the town and/or other travelers. This will be my 8th trip to Europe and I rarely do any more museums or churches.

Dear TRSW,
Thanks for the tip - I just couldn't find it.

to Oinchats: I don't really want to go to Porto Fino Just for the reasons you cited. Not the kind of scene I am seeking.

I do want to see some of the sleepy, beautiful villages to get away from the NYC crowds!!! I want to make sure that it isn't going to be too hard to get from one place to the other. We will be using public transport so it may just be more practical to stay in one spot.

Hi,
Look at Cagmoli and Zoagli- both on the train line. I would stay at the Hotel Casmona in Cagmoli and at the Hotel Zoagli in Zoagli. Chiavari is nearby too- we ate well there. S.M. Ligure is nice too, but bigger. Yes, forget Portofino!
Cheers!
SMB

Thanks shbennet.

I will look these up. Do you think either of these would be a good place to stay for 4 nights and use as day trips? I do want to go to S. Margherita but don't know if it's a good place to use as a base.

You might want to try Porto Venere which I call the poor mans' Porto Fino. There is also Elba Island where Napolean was in exile.

Santa Marguerita is not a sleepy village. This Sept will be my 7th trip to Italy. The first time saw Rome, Florence, etc. and have not been back to a large city since. If you want small villages most of the places on Lake Como fit that description (I don't think Como doe). The ulitmate small village to me are the towns on the Cinque Terre or the Amalfi Coast. Lucca to me was a large city and I am from Los Angeles. There are small places outside of Lucca. But then again, I always rent a car so I can go where I want and stop where I want.

shbennet:

Where did you eat in Chiavari?

Some corrections:

Zoagli has no train station, and is inconvenient to the train line.

Sorry to nitpick on spelling but:

Portofino, Portovenere, Santa Margherita Ligure.

Santa Margherita Ligure is a small yacht marina, and depending on what day you are there (and even what time of day) it can feel not only sleepy but comatose, or it can feel like hustling-bustling holiday town. It's both.

Lucca is a city -- a small Italian city, but it's historic center is small and completely walkable.

The physical villages of the Cinque Terre, Portofino and the Amalfi are small in size and square footage, but their tourist populations run into the millions these days. Not kidding. For all practical purposes, they are colonies of the foreign tourist industry, scarcely part of Italy anymore. One seldom hears Italian spoken in these places. (Yes, yes, I know you can sometimes hear it. But it's not the norm.)

There are always sweet small Italian villages right within reach of the most touristy spots in Italy. You don't need a car. Just take a bus.

I haven't been to Santa Margherita since 1997, but I found it small enough and charming. We stayed at a hotel on the harbor. Portofino is a 10-15 minute boat or bus ride, and is worth a short visit of an hour or two. If you climb the hill you will see a beautiful view of the harbor. We also took the train from SM to the Cinque Terre for the day. Camogli is another easy spot to get to from SM by train for a short visit. October should not be terribly busy for these towns. I don't know how easy it is to get there, but you can check out the train schedules. It's just south of Genoa.

I don't know what Lake Como is like in late October, but it is lovely and a great area to spend some time. You could get there by train via Milan.

You could stop in Orvieto (in Umbria) for a spell. It's about an hour's train ride north of Rome. From there you could take some side trips to other hill towns by train or bus.

Sienna is a city. You could base there and take side trips to hill towns.

Your options, as you can see, are endless.

I suggest you read some trip reports on this board and look for things that interest you the most.