My husband and I are planning to travel to paris and end up in Italy this summer. We want to hit the French and Italian Riviera and the cinque terre. Does anyone have any suggestions on how we should spend our time and what we should not miss? We are traveling for 17 days.

It would help to have some idea of your interests - otherwise we are shooting blind.

You should start by getting a few guidebooks for the areas you want to visit, study the books and then narrow down what is of interest to you.

Once you have identified specifically where you want to go and what sites are of interest to you, then we can help with the details.

Well I would not miss Venice. But I have no idea if that would be true for you, or not.

Since we have no idea how old you are, what interests you, what your budget is, or how you're traveling from place to place, it's impossible to give you any suggestions beyond the guidebook tips that you should be reading.

Replace Italy with any city, region, etc [eg Cinque_Terre].

http://wikitravel.org/en/Italy

Train info on themaninseat61.com, flights on skyscanner.com. Flights out of Italy on skyscanner enter from IT to your home airport.

Be aware that these resort ares will be flooded with tourists.

I don't know what your age has to do with this. Or even your budget. It sounds to me like you want to go to Paris, the French Riviera and le Cinque Terre, which can easily be done in 17 days. And that you would like advice about the typical tourist highlights of these places.

Guidebooks are definitely the place to start. If possible, fly into Paris and fly out of Pisa (or Genova, or possibly Milan). Take the train or fly from Paris to the French Riviera. Although it is a longish train ride from the French Riviera to le Cinque Terre, if you are going between May and October, it is better than taking a car, since once you are in the area of le Cinque Terre, parking is next to impossible every place you might want to sightsee.

Le Cinque Terre is a controversial destination because during the nice-weather months, the 5 villages are overwhelmed with visitors during the day, shoulder to shoulder at some spots. There are many nice Italian Riviera towns close to le Cinque Terre on the train line if you don't like crowds. However, if you are going in the hot months, and if your idea to "hit" le Cinque Terre is really centered on the desire to hike between the villages, you should sleep in one of the villages, because it is better to do any hiking starting early in the morning, before it gets dizzingly hot.