I'm trying to book the Politian in Montepulciano and having a lot of difficulty emailing. Now I feel we cannot go to Tuscany without seeing Cinque Terre after reading about it here. If it is too far I will try to get somewhere closer. I just looked at a map of Tuscany and just can't find Cinque Terre. Help! I'm planning this trip because of the great trip reports here.

It is about 3 hours driving---look at the Gulf of La Spezia south of Genoa. Do not alter your Tuscany location, just plan to spend 2 nitee at the CT.

Between LaSpezia and Genoa...Cinque Terre is not to be missed!!!!!! It's amazing!

Hi Micheline, I think I understand your problem. Cinque Terre is not a town or city..it is a group of five small towns along the coastline. The five towns consist of the Cinque Terre. Due to an injury to a finger typingt is difficult so rather than listing them may I suggest you go to Google and type in Cinque Terre in the search box. You will see all the info you need. Best wishes.

Thank you for your replies. It does seem pretty far. Perhaps we should find some place closer to Florence instead of Montepulciano for our base. Hopefully we will not stay more than one night as we will have already payed for 7 days at a villa and that's all the time we have. Back to the perfect villa search in the perfect Tuscany town.

I'm planning a day trip from Tuscany area to Cinque Terre and am having the same problem on deciding the best place to stay in Tuscany to be able to make a day trip to Cinque Terre and also be near Siena & Florence. Did you make a decision?

Hi M,

What's your itinerary and when will you be going?

It might not be a good idea to visit the CT this time.

It will be there for your next visit to Italy.

My itinerary is 3 nights Venice, 5 nights Tuscany, 3 nights Rome. We don't want to change hotels while in Tuscany, but really want to visit Cinque Terre for a day. What do you think of the San Gimignano area? Can you recommend places to stay?

Hi C,

>My itinerary is 3 nights Venice, 5 nights Tuscany, 3 nights Rome.<

A very nice itinerary.

If you absolutely must see the CT, I suggest taking the time from your tour of Tuscany.

I take it that you are planning to rent a car when you leave Venice to tour Tuscany.

In that case, you can drive to La Spezia
in about 2:30 hr, see the CT for the day and return to your Tuscan base.

I also suggest returning your car in Orvieto, spending some time seeing the town and taking the train to Rome.

Have a nice visit.

)