Lisa

10 days in Italy and so far we have decided on arriving in Milan and jumping on train to Venice for 3 nights. Day 4 - taking train to Florence for 3 nights. Day 7 - debating on train or renting car and driving to Cinque Terre for 2 nights and then we have one more night of either staying over in Milan for a late pm flight, or adding a night in CT, or staying overnight somewhere near Milan (Portofino, Genoa?). Looking for suggestions on where to stay in CT - both small towns and inns. And opinions on train vs. renting car for that last leg. Thanks very much...

Kay

Lisa,<BR>you could stay in Santa Margherita Ligure for the last 3 nights then catch the train (or drive) to Milan to fly home. We stayed in SML at the Hotel Fiorina earlier this year and would recommend it. Great seaside town, lots of nice places to eat, full of great (expensive) shops and million dollar yachts. Good for people watching! The bus trip is about 20 mins to Portofino which is worth an afternoon but I wouldn't stay there. It's only an hour by train to the Cinque Terre. A good day would be to catch the train from SML to Corniglia, grab a gelati and some water, walk the coastal trail to Vernazza (about 2 hrs) have a meal in Vernazza and catch the train back to SML. There is very little parking at Portofino or the CT villages.<BR>Kay

Alice Twain

Stick this extra day to some of the other places you are goimg to visit. For instance, with only 3 days in Florence you wuill still miss a lot of things worth seeing.

RC

Two nights in the CT is plenty. I would stick the extra day in Venice instead of Florence, however.

Bob

We stayed in SML and saw Portofino (we walked from our hotel in SML) and took the train to CT. We did the walk between several of the CT villages. Frankly we didn't see much to CT but that is our opinion and you may enjoy it. Looking back we would have enjoyed taking the day we devoted to CT and used it to stay longer in Tuscany, in particular the Chianti area. Since you are going to be in Florence, have you thought about renting a car and seeing Tuscany?