My husband and I are going to Paris in October for a few days. We have been to Paris before and would like to move on to another location from there. We are thinking about Barcelona, but also love Italy. Any suggestions for some areas in northern Italy that might not be too difficult to fly to from Paris and well worth a visit? Thanks very much.

One destination would be Milan. That would be a good base for going north to the Lakes, west to Cinque Terre, south to Tuscany and Umbria.

The other destination would be Venice. From there you could go north to the Dolomites.

Does that help? Feel free to email me if you want more specific recommendations.

Thanks for that info. If Cinque Terre, do you know if we would need a car there and would it be better to fly into Genoa rather than Milan?

unless your destination is venice i would have a rental car regardless to enjoy the out of the way places.

Hi mikster, if you were going to spend all of your time in the CinqueTerre a car would be more of a hinderence. But if you wanted to tour the regions of Piedmont, Tuscany, or the lake area, the Dolomites etc., a car would certainly be needed to truly enjoy those areas.