Island45

We are traveling Italy for the month of April and I have most of my reservations done however I have about 4 "open" days in the middle I am having trouble deciding the best use of our time. After Florence and Umbria and a two night stay around Siena we have three days before we have to be in Milan. We would like to drop our car somewhere after our Siena stay then travel on using trains and busses as it seems many of the places you have to leave your car outside of town. Would like to try to visit Portofino or some coastal town where we could stay for at least two nights and then explore from there and have easy train access to get to Milan. Any suggestions??

Dayle

Island,

We spent 3 nts in Santa Margherita Ligure, just north of the Cinque Terre in May a few years ago and really enjoyed the town and the area. From there we spent one day training down to Riomaggiore and hiking back as far as Vernazza. Another day we took the earliest boat over to Portofino (water views are gorgeous), wandered around and enjoyed a very long, wine-filled lunch at the tiny harbor. One half day was spent in SML itself which we just loved. We would have liked a 4th nt, but couldn't change our next reservation so went on to Milan.

I would think about dropping the car maybe at Florence or the Pisa airport, then proceeding by train from there. Any train from Siena will stop in Florence anyway, then you will probably need to change to the regional train in Pisa to get to the Cinque Terre.

April might be a bit early for good hiking weather on the CT.

Train from SML to Milan went thru Genoa and took about 2.5 hours as I remember.

Buon viaggio!

bobthenavigator

I agree with Dayle, but I would keep the car and stay in SML.
Day trip to Camogli, Portofino, and Sestri Levante.

Island45

My thoughts were inclining towards SML for two nights and San Gimignano for two nights at a agritourism there. Any thoughts on staying in SML VS Portofino?? Any good suggestions as to where to stay in SML?? Also I am curious why you suggest to keep the car?? Do you mean keep the car until Milan or drop the car in SML?? Thanks for the suggestions...keep them coming...we leave in just under two weeks...looking forward to getting the payoff for all the hard work of the planning..

bobthenavigator

SML is 3 miles from Portofino and a better place to stay---Portofini is tiny and terribly expensive. I would keep the car and drop it at MXP, but I like to drive.

Dayle

Island,

I agree with bob on SML vs. Portofino. We were originally planning to stay in Portofino, but after searching hotel prices ($$$$!!!!) and getting advice here on how small the town really is, we went for SML. We were very, very glad we did!

SML is a coastal resorty town, but not too much so. We were there in mid-May and it was not busy with tourists at all. The day we spent in Portofino was a similar experience to Capri. About 10:30 am all the day trippers and cruise ship visitors pour into the tiny town, wander, window shop, eat. We were glad we were there early and got to wander around for a couple of hours BEFORE the crowds decended. 1/2 in Portofio is scenic and enough.

uhoh_busted

I like the idea of SML....I think I'll put that on my list for late September. We are leaving a week open for "road trip" time between reservations for weeks at an agritorismo north of Florence and a week at Lake Como. We really like to have some serendipity time plugged into a trip.