Lake Como, CT & Tuscany
 

We'll be celebrating our 40th anniversary with a two week Sept. trip to Lake Como (Varenna), Cinque Terre, and Tuscany. Flying into Milan, train to Varenna for 2 day/3night stay, train to Monterosso via Milan, stay in Monterosso 2 more days with not much hiking, but leisurely enjoying the five towns and Portovenere. (Why Monerosso? Because it seemed the fewest train and transportation transfers after coming from Veranna.) I'm considering adding another day in Monterosso for a day-trip with 1.5 to 2 hr. train ride going to Pisa and/or Lucca. This stop might also be made en route to Siena (probably train) but makes for a long day and luggage issues. I'm getting mixed opinions about Lucca and this seems like a lot of travel time getting there w/o actually staying and adding another hotel. Any thoughts on this? We're trying to limit the number of hotel changes since we'll have one more in Tuscany and the last night near Florence airport to catch an early flight. I'm also a little wary of the train system since we've only used it once when we recently visited lovely Verona from Venice where our cruise ship was docked. Unfortunately, we also don't speak Italian. But we managed years ago when we drove from Venice to Florence (3 days), saw the major sites in Siena on our way to Assisi and continued our trip with a white knuckled drive on the Amalfi Coast to Positano, back through Pompeii and ended in Rome. We always said we would like to spend more time in Tuscany and Siena. With a car we could possibly visit San Gimignano (Monteriggioni and/or Colle di Val d' Elsa on the way). Perhaps another day we would drive to Pienza and Montepulciano. Last year we drove through beautiful Provence enjoying many small towns, each with their unique characteristics. I'm sure Tuscany will be delightful as well. Any suggestions for this itinerary, hotels recommendations, would be appreciated.

It is hard to help when my eyes can hardly focus on your no spaces paragraph. Are you opposed to using the space bar?

Instead of going to Pisa or Lucca as a day trip, consider a closer destination. Camogli is a beautiful town to visit for the day and the train station is right in town. I highly recommend the public boat trip to the lovely abbey of San Fruttuoso. Do a Google search for photos of Camogli.

http://www.prolococamogli.it/penglish/eindex.htm

Sarzana is also very nice (though not on the water) and I found it similar to Lucca (without the tourists) and it is much closer for a day trip.

You might want to pick up your car in La Spezia and head to Tuscany from there. I think it would be easier than training to Siena to pick up the car. La Spezia is a short train ride from Monterosso. You may need to take a taxi from the train station to the car rental office, depending on who you rent from. Check autoeurope.com and kemwel.com for car rentals and be sure to check deductibles when comparing prices.

How many days will you have for your Tuscany stay?

Your night prior to your flight you should stay in Florence city center rather than near the airport. It's a 10 minute taxi ride from the city center to the airport in the early morning.

Sorry, Bob, for the eye straining request for information.

At 2:26 A.M., it was my attempt at being concise while my brain was running in overdrive.

I will try to be more paragraph sensitive in the future.

Thank you, Zoecat, for such helpful suggestions.

I'll investigate Camogli and Sarzana as neither are mentioned in either of my travel books.

Renting a car in La Spezia and driving to Siena is a good option since we'll be renting a car in Tuscany anyway. We've had a good experience in the past with Auto Europe.

We'll be staying in Tuscany for about seven days with a few days still open to ideas. Siena, San Gimignano, Montepulciano/Pienza and a day in Florence are our only plans for now.

It's great to know the airport taxi ride from Florence city center is short, allowing us to stay closer to the beautiful city.