Danielle

We will be traveling from Nice to Florence the week of March 20th. We plan to make Santa Margherita Ligure our base while in the Italian Riviera (only for 2 days). I realize that the ferries are not running this time of year but is everthing open for business in the Cinque Terre or will we have trouble finding restaurants open before April? I've been told that it's "spring break" and we should be ready for the students to be everywhere on the weekends.

Any hint on the typical weather for March in this area? Is this still the rainy season? Thanks.

topper

topping

ttt

topping

jj

I can't say for sure but I certainly would expect most enterprises to be open for business.

Huitres

The entire Italian Riviera is open. If you're talking about wanting to lay out on the beaches, some may be closed but you would not want to in March anyway. I was there this last March-April and it was windy and quite chilly (50s during the day), with a couple days of sporadic rain. All things considered, Spring time is my most favorite season there and I have been on the Italian Riviera during all 4 seasons. The nice thing about the Spring time is that it is before the crowds and heat hit the area.

KayF

We stayed in Manarola (Cinque Terre) and Santa Margherita Ligure in late March and everything was open. We came across a few school groups, mostly Italians but some Canadians etc. It certainly wasn't dead quiet. I don't know about typical weather for that time of year, but we had mild sunny weather most of the time, we wore t-shirts and trousers on our CT hikes plus a polar fleece and scarf in the evenings. Very pleasant walking weather. We took a light rain jacket with us but hardly used it.
Kay

work2fly

Thanks so much for the replies. Now I know exactly what to pack. We plan to do a lot of walking, but we'll take the train thru the "hiking" trails.

Danielle