NEED HELP/ Start in Tuscany or Italian Riviera?
 

Hi Everyone, trying to start planning and booking for mid May trip. We can stay for 14 days and love to visit the Italian Riviera ( the famous villages/points,Portofino) and spend 4-5 days in Tuscany. I don't know where our starting point should be? We are arriving from California and can arrive into Genoa . We have already been in Amalfi Coast area and been in Florance too so would like to try to fly in in Genoa or Milan .
Please make suggestion as to where to start and how many days in each city. In Tuscany, we have already been in Chianti and San Gimignano. Would love to see Siena, Montepulciano (because it seems there are many possitive comments on these area). Where should be our main spot to stay in hotel and then drive around to see the close by villages for 4-5 days?
Should we see the Italian Riviera first then travel to Tuscany?
We are avid travellers mid 50's and love to see villages drive around, see local tradition and people.
Please give us your input.
Thanks so much.

The longer you wait to visit the Italian Riviera, the better the weather gets. Mid-May is still spring on the Riviera, which means the chance of having rain that lasts for days.

Since you want to see Montepuliciano and Siena, consider flying to Rome and immediately taking a train to the lovely hilltown of Orvieto. Sleep one night or two in order to get over your jet lag, then rent a car and head to Montepulciano or its immediate surroundings, and you can visit Siena from there.

When you leave this area, take a route that goes through Chiusdino and the abbey of San Galgano, then head up to Lerici to spend a night or three. From there you can visit Portovenere, or le Cinque Terre by boat.

Then take the car and drive to Rapallo, drop off the car, and stay there or Santa Margherita Ligure, or in Camogli if you would prefer a fishing village (you can get on the train to these places after you drop off the car).

From any of these towns you can get a taxi to the Genova airport (80e) to fly home.

Turin is an incredibly beautiful city. Very casual and under-touristed. Super pleasant.

Staying in Sta. Margherita Ligure is great and gorgeous too (just a smidge south of Genoa). Camogli is also a pretty little stony beach heaven. The Portofino peninsula is wide open from either.

Then there is Cinque Terre, either a simple train trip, or a trip of its own (Vernazza is a nice place to stay, if it hasn't gotten too popular).

The biggest question is what you want to do first (more stimuated, but maybe more jet laggied?) versus later (more comfortable, more relaxed) Tuscany vs. Riviera early in the trip vs. later.

My temptation would be to fly into Rome, take a train to Orvieto to overnight there, and then pick up a rental car and drive on to location in S. Tuscany, such as Pienza or Montalcino or San Quirico d'Orcia or another town in the vicinity to use as a base.

Then, I would drive to the Italian Riviera. Part of my decision of where to stay would be whether I wanted to swim. In fact, because I would want to swim, I'd choose to start in S. Tuscany and then drive north to the Italian Riviera to increase my chances of warmer weather, including warmer water temps.

I would probably turn in the rental car in La Spezia and use the train system from there because so many of the Italian Riviera towns are connected by train and parking in these towns can be very difficult. There are exceptions, such as Lerici and Portovenere, which are not on the train line.

You could plan to fly home from Genoa or Pisa.

Hi, if you have already been in Tuscany and visited San Gimignano, Chianti and Florence, but if you feel as if would be much more to see, well it is right. Tuscany is not a trip, is many trips at the time and if you are a smart travellers I suggest you should head yourself to Mugello. This area is quite close to Florence, but not touristic at all and still untouched by a naturalistic point of view.
If you stay in country resort as http://www.monsignordellacasa.com you can also practice wildlife watching and see many animals or hike in the woods.
Then Borgo San Lorenzo, Scarperia and the small villages near Appennini mountain are really worth the visit. You can land in Genoa and then get there in 3 hours, or, if you decide to focus on Tuscany, you can land directly in Florence and reach Mugello in half a hour.

If you decide to visit Cinqueterre you can visit site http://www.arbaspaa.com/ and find all information to arrange your trip.

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