Tuscany to Milan help with day trip
 

Our last day in Italy consists of having to get from Tuscany near Greve to Milan to fly out in the morning. We will be traveling on a Saturday to make a Sunday morning flight. Spending the night in hotel near MXP. We would like to stop in Pisa to see the tower (of course!) and possibly Lucca. Other ideas we are kicking around are a visit to Portofino, Genoa, or tool around Tuscany for awhile then later on to Pisa -- but not sure. Any suggestions? We are open to all options. Two adults and two teens with a car and nothing but time. We are pretty adventerous and are up for anything. Please advise. Thanks!

What time of year is this? It makes a big difference.

I live near Portofino and I would not want to drive there from Greve, and then drive out of there to Milano. If you want a pastel beach town and pesto, consider Lerici, which would make it easier to get to Milano.

However, in general, you have less time than you think. If you are up for anything, consider Lago d'Orta or Lago Maggiore if you are traveling relatively nice weather? Keep the car and drive yourselves to MXP from there. Skip the airport hotel.

We are traveling in 4 weeks -- so the very start of April. Does Italy change times in the spring (in the USA we change our clocks once a year, this weekend, for daylight savings time). Would we have time to see any of the Cinque Terre area?

Understand that the beauty of the Cinque Terre is to travel a bit between the towns, either hiking or boating, and relax and swim a bit, and you really aren't allotting much time to do that. Yes, you might be able to bomb into a parking lot, get out of your car and walk around one town and have lunch, but if you are going to do that, you might find it just as rewarding to go to Lerici and have lunch, which is much easier to get in and out of than le Cinque Terre, and you'd have much shorter trip to the Milano area.


You should use a map site like viamichelin or mappy and plug in a route from Greve toMonterosso al Mare, then from there to Malpensa or an airport hotel address and see what kind of drive times you get. I think you would have to get up at the crack of dawn to do the day you're thinking about, and then everything would have to go perfectly. Have you driven in Italy before? Takes longer than you think, because one does get lost a lot, even with a GPS. And it's always easier to be at your ultimate destination before dark.

Even if you think you can swing it, drop the idea if you wake up and it's raining the day you plan to go. However, I also wouldn't drive into CInque Terre on a nice weekend. It can get terribly crowded in the parking lots. SInce you are going on a Saturday, it's really not a great idea when you have a big time pressure on the other end.

Italy does have a "summer" time, but I forget when it starts. Shortly, I think.


But last thought: Do you have any feeling at all for going to Parma and having lunch, and perhaps also seeing Torrechiara? Piacenza is not on everybody's list of must-sees, but it does have the curiosity of a church bell tower with a little cage attached to it where they once put prisoners as punishment.

> Italy does have a "summer" time, but I forget when it starts

"Ora legale" in 2009 starts the night between March, 29th and 30th.

Sorry, errata corrige: the night between 28th and 29th...