Tuscany and/or Cinque Terre?help with 3 days, please.
 

Any suggestions on spending 3 days in Tuscany and/or Cinque Terre this October. First time to Italy, here's our itinerary so far. 3 nights Rome, 3 nights Sorrento,
2 nights Florence, 3 days (undecided) and final 2 nights in Venice. Our thoughts
were to rent a car from Florence airport and visit Siena and San Gimignano. Stay overnight in San Gimignano and possibly two nights in Cinque Terre. Could a car
pose a problem in Cinque Terre parking? Would time be better spent staying in the Tuscany area exploring via car? My head is spinning, how wonderful planning a trip to Italy!

That's a tough one, I loved the Cinque Terre and Tuscany, what you could do is head to Lucca from Florence, spend one night there (or stop along the way) and then head to Lerici (this is where we stayed when we visited the Cinque Terre. We stayed at the Hotel Miami, parked the car in a lot attached to the hotel, from there, a nice boat ride took us to Portavenere, then the Cinque Terre, we took a combination of boat/train between the five towns, very easy to do in one day, so two nights would be fine. Lerici is where Mary Shelly's Frankenstein castle is based on, very friendly town, lots of great seafood restaurants and easy drive to get too. We spent four days here and did a day trip to Lucca (about 1 1/2 hours each way). Have a great time.

I love Cinque Terre, but wouldn't take a car there. You could drive nearby and park, but then you're wasting the car. Since you've got one, AND you'll already be in Tuscany, I'd add the extra days to that area and explore more of the Tuscan towns. Each has it's own character.

Oooh...tough call. We spent five days based in Siena followed by four based in Vernazza and it still wasn't enough for both places.

As I almost always tell people, you have to make the &quot;quality vs. quantity&quot; ( or &quot;depth vs. breadth&quot;) decision here. What's more important to <i>you</i>, to see more places -- both Cinque Terre and Tuscany -- or to spend time more time in one place? Because, although it's more driving, you <i>can</i> do both if you want to.

In Cinque Terre, Monterosso, the northernmost town, has (I believe) plenty of parking and Vernazza, the second northernmost town, has a small parking lot just above the village, reached by a very scenic narrow winding road.

Good luck! No matter what your ultimate decision, you can't go wrong and you'll have a wonderful time.

Check out &quot;Radda&quot; in Chianti - which is only about a 1/2 hour drive North(NE) of Siena. We happened upon it while on our drive to Florence, and WISH we had a chance to stay there. A quiet, peaceful and lovely town!!

Hi LS,

I suggest:

add one night to Rome and spend a day in Orvieto

add 1 night to Florence and take the bus to Siena for a day

add one night to Venice

I agree with ira. It strikes me that you are not considering travel time between your destinations or jet lag on your first day in Italy assuming you are coming into Europe from abroad.
I like ira's plan as it brings you up to what I would consider a minimum of time for each of your major destinations. You can do what you propose but I think you will be left with more stress and the feeling that &quot;If I just had one more day I would be satistfied &quot; in several of your destinations. Tuscan towns, C.T., Portofino etc can be another lovely vacation all on its own.

The temptation is always to squeeze as much as possible into the first trip. But it can be exhausting.

Depending on the times you arrive and leave for your next destination, and packing up each time, your stay is shorter than you actually think it is.

If you want a more leisurely pace, then my suggestion would be to eliminate either Sorrento or Venice. If you eliminate Sorrento, you can give yourself more time in Rome and Venice. If you eliminate Venice, you can give more time to Rome and the Amalfi area.

Staying a little longer in one spot gives you the opportunity to really get a feel for the area. And if something is closed, you have more leeway to get back on another day.

We recently had five nights in Tuscany and didn't get to see everything we wanted to, and we had already been to San Gim, Florence and Siena on our last trip.

Whatever you decide on, you will be happy.

Yes, I agree, it is wonderful planning a trip to Italy. Have fun.

I like Ira's suggestion. And I adore Cinque Terre. But my husband has taught met that I enjoy more if I slow down a little. (I'm one of those 'I-don't-want-to-miss-a-thing people).

I know I've had such a hard time getting out of Tuscany, I haven't been to Amalfi, yet, but I would never eliminate Venice from (especially my first) trip. But that's my opinion.

I drove from S Margharita to Siena just recently, it took about 2.5hrs. Siena - CT would be less although getting from the highway into the towns might take a little bit of time. Nonetheless, its doable. But, from my perspective, looking at Umbrian/Tuscan towns was more rewarding.

Dont worry about going out to Florence airport to collect the car. Most of the car hire places were just out of the centre of Florence. Go up a road, accross a bridge and about 2 turns later (although a bit of distance) and you are on the highway. The roads in this area are no different to the roads in any other largish city in the world. Just have a good navigator, study the map for a bit before you get in the car (and get a proper road map of Florence - a couple of euros. The map of central Fl in a guide book will be useless)