Originally Posted by Jean

Lake Como has more hiking and more diverse "other activities" than the Cinque Terre, but you can't see/do much if you only spend 2 nights there (possibly jet-lagged?). If you spent more time there, from Varenna (mid-Lake Como), you could take a day trip by train to St. Moritz. It's several hours on the train, but there is some beautiful scenery.

With only 8 nights to work with, I'd spend them in two places with the last night near the departure airport.

A few FYIs:

September and October are still very much high season in terms of tourist crowds.

The transfer from Varenna to, say, Ravenna, takes about 5 hours. Unless you're staying in Como town, you'd likely need to add up to an hour. And then the transfer from, say, Ravenna to Lucca takes another 4 hours. In a short-ish trip, that's a lot of time lost in transit.

IMO, the CT always feels more crowded than other places. No exception on the trails, train platforms, ferry docks...