itinerary and home base for Italian Riviera
 

I am starting to plan a 9 day trip for myself and my husband in April - May and wanted to spend a few days exploring Cinque Terra. Thought we could visit the other towns along the coast, and wondered if one of them ( Sestri Levante, or Sta Margherita Ligure) would be a good spot as a home base from which to explore the area outside of CT, and then spend 2-3 nights in one of the towns in CT. Where would we fly in and out from the US? Genoa? Milan? Florence? There is nothing direct to any of those cities from our city, so we could take a connecting flight from a European city.
Any ideas and suggestions would be appreciated, thanks!

Sorry you are not getting much response! In late Sept. we flew from Atlanta to Genoa - direct from ATL to AMS and then "city hopper" to Genoa - went pretty smoothly. From Genoa we had a car service take us to Rapallo where we spent 4 nights and LOVED it!. From Rapallo we could take boats both to the east and also to CT (that was a long day tho). We really liked staying in Rapallo and wish we would have spent a few more nights there - there was plenty to do, explore in the nearby area. You might want to look at the website Rome 2 Rio for travel options or the ita matrix website for flights.

We have been to Santa Margherita Ligure twice and loved both of our stays. We went down to the Cinque Terre for three nights from SML the first time we visited. We also would consider staying in Camogli, smaller and very charming, on north side of the peninsula while SML is on tne south side. We flew into Milan MXP and drove down to the coast on the autostrada. Beautiful area..

thanks! I will check out Rapallo and will check out your suggested website. I appreciate your reply.

I will look into Camogli as well, but glad to hear that Santa Margherita Ligure is a nice spot. and It seems like Milan is a good option for flights. Although I guess we could go wherever flying direct and take a short flight to Genoa as the other responder suggested.

Another traveler also mentioned Rapallo in a trip report, it sounds interesting. Can you take trains easily to the other towns as well as boats? We are going to spend a few days in CT so this would be as a base to explore the other towns around. Did you stay in Genoa at all? Would you recommend that? Another Fodorite said one night was enough, so that could be our last night, since we fly out of Genoa. Was the airport easy to access by public transit?

I only spent a few nights in the area, but loved my time at La Torretta in Manarola.
Charme & Relax | La Torretta Lodge Manarola

Hope that helps!

Trains are best to go up and down the coast and of course to CTerre. Most are regional trains that are dirt-cheap and have a flat fare with no seat reservations possible - just buy at station and board any regional train that day or validty time of ticket. Acquista il biglietto con le nostre offerte - Trenitalia has schedules - lots of Italian train info also at www.ricksteves.com; BETS-European Rail Experts and www.seat61.com.