Italy - So many questions!

[kaleykate]

Hi again!
We finally registered..this is definitely our favourite site ever! Okay anyways, we have been making quite a few posts on various topics, and you guys have been tons of help, although we still have a lot more questions! Any help anyone can give us would be awesome. Okay so our itinerary (with your help) so far is:
Arrive in Nice at 7am - spend half the day Nice, half the day Cannes - sleep in Nice
Next morning go to Monaco for half the day then travel to Cinque Terre. (Not sure how long this is going to take us) - Sleep in Cinque Terre ..here is our first question. Where in CT should we sleep? We know that there is a hostel in the 4th town, but does it make sense to travel to the 4th town on the first night since we would have to backtrack to see the first 3 towns?
Spend the next day and night in CT. - Also, I believe in a previous post Eagle asked us if we knew the route to get to CT...and the answer is no...haha..we would love your help. The only thing we could find was a train from Genoa to La Spezia. Not sure if that is the right way.
Travel to Venice the next morning (or should we stay in Cinque Terre for the day and travel to Venice at night?) Sleep in Venice.
Spend the day in Venice. Sleep in Venice
Spend the next day in Venice. Travel to Florence at night. Sleep in Florence.
Spend two days and two nights in Florence. (Day trip to Pisa..possibly Lucca and Siena?)
Travel to Rome the next morning. Sleep in Rome.
Spend 3 more days and two more nights in Rome.
Travel to Naples the next morning (the only reason we’re traveling here is because we want to see Pompeii mainly..and maybe some other towns around this area. We have heard people talking about the Amalfi Coast and Capri..not sure if this fits in to our schedule or if they are worth traveling to)
And here is our main question..we fly out of London..and we’re thinking of spending a day or two here. We are wondering what the CHEAPEST way is to get to London from where we are. We have been looking at flights from Rome (which prices seem to be increasing day by day) and aren’t really sure what to do. Do we travel from Naples area back to Rome...then fly out of Rome to London. Or do we just skip the Naples area altogether because of the cost...(is the travel cost from Rome-Naples...Naples-Rome worth it?)
Sorry for the length of this post, but we have so many questions we thought it might be easier to follow if it was all in one post. We would love any information/advice on any of these questions. Thanks so much!
Kate & Kaley

[LHR02]

....and so many opinions I want to offer! ;D Sadly no time this evening but I will get back to you tomorrow. In the meantime...I am sure there are many others who will chime in with advice and opinions!

ging

[triple5funk]

well i'm not quite sure where you are traveling from but only 1 day in the south of france seems a bit rushed, esp. since you are arriving into nice and the first day can always be pretty tiring. but anyway here are my thoughts on the rest of ur trip:

cinque terre: there is a hostel at the 4th town, but there are also many other places that are run privately. i think the one i used was cinque terre holidays. furthermore, there's a train that hits all the towns so traveling between them shouldn't be a problem.

venice: DO NOT travel to venice at night. it's much easier to find the place where you're going to stay in the day time.

florence: not much to add here. ur plans seem fine. i'm biased, but florence was one of my favorite cities in italy and we spent almost 4 days there and it wasn't enough! but with ur schedule in mind, 2 days and 2 nights would have to do.

rome and naples: are u planning on staying in naples? if so, the most feasible plan is to travel back to rome. spend 1 more nite in rome. and then fly back to london the next morning via ryanair or easyjet.

[me]

cinque terre holidays was the outfit i used, also. it was gawd awful! worst place i stayed on the trip, unquestionably! [well, the 2nd place in Szeged wasn't much better - but cost less than 20% as much!]

- d

triple5funk said:

cinque terre: there is a hostel at the 4th town, but there are also many other places that are run privately. i think the one i used was cinque terre holidays. furthermore, there's a train that hits all the towns so traveling between them shouldn't be a problem.

[triple5funk]

david - really??? i guess it depends on what house they have u in. the place we were at in riomaggiore wasn't 5-star, but nothing to really complain too much about. then again this was after we stayed at friends hostel in paris and ANYTHING is great compared to that hell-hole.

me said:

cinque terre holidays was the outfit i used, also. it was gawd awful! worst place i stayed on the trip, unquestionably! [well, the 2nd place in Szeged wasn't much better - but cost less than 20% as much!]

- d

[Tracie]

I stayed in CT holidays too and was less than pleased with the place. Creaky old bunkbeds, closet sized bathroom with a toilet that constantly broke. Although I did stay here with no reservation in late July so I can't really complain. I had stayed in Ostello CT in Manarola previously on the trip and found it great...but they have a lot of rules (long daytime lockout, curfew, etc) and book up really fast. If you want privacy I think that a private room would be a much better bet.

From Genoa you take a small train in the direction of La Spezia and it stops at all of the CT towns (I hope I am remembering this correctly). By train the distances to each town is very minimal so backtracking is no big deal.

[Eagle]

kaleykate, I've got a few more comments for you, although to answer everything you asked about is going to take some time!

Travel from Nice to the Cinque Terre should be fairly easy. Take the train from Nice to Manarola, via Genoa. Travel time is about 6 hours with two changes. This goes past Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza and Corniglia and stops at Manarola and Riomaggiore. When you get to the station at Manarola (hopefully it's staffed at the time you arrive?) be sure to buy your CT card, which is a Park Pass since it's a National Park. I believe there is a 3 day Pass which might include some rail or boat access?

As far as where to stay in Manarola, there's the www.hostel5terre.com/index.html of course. Depending on your budget you might also have a look at www.torrettas.com (also quite popular so you might want to pre-book).

Once you decide which of the five towns you're going to stay in, post another note and I'll try to offer some suggestions for lodgings. The distance between the towns via train is not great, so it's not a big deal to stay in any one of them.

I "second" the suggestion from Triple5funk, not a good idea to travel to Venice at night! Go in the daytime (preferably early) so that you can find your lodgings, get your bearings and do a bit of sightseeing.

Along the same line, I'm not sure it's a good idea to stop in Monaco for half a day, as that gets you to the CT quite late in the afternoon. You might want to "drop" Monaco from this trip, or allow some extra time for an additional day?

I'll have a look at some of your other questions later. Like Dustoffmom I'm a bit short of time tonight. Hopefully some of the other "regulars" here will post some suggestions also.

[me]

was in a ground floor apartment in Riomaggiore. on the main drag, not far from the tunnel. the freight trains going through all night made sleep a hit or miss affair, and i wore ear plugs!

the toilet was literally *in* the shower stall! it was also shared by all in the filled-up 9 bed room, and hadn't been cleaned this millennium! oh, the blankets smelled of urine, too.

there was a fridge, which was nice, and a stove, which i never used. (didn't trust the pots, pans, dishes, etc.) used the small grocery next door, which was also handy, to buy sandwich fixin's, beer, etc. also used the pizzeria across the street.

oh, bought a pizza there and got some beer, planning to take the elevator up to view the gorgeous sunset - the elevator closed just before i got there, so i rushed up the path and just made it in time, but the pizza was not in good shape. (got grease from the pizza on my jacket) the moral of this story: plan ahead and don't cut corners on timing!

triple5funk said:

david - really??? i guess it depends on what house they have u in. the place we were at in riomaggiore wasn't 5-star, but nothing to really complain too much about. then again this was after we stayed at friends hostel in paris and ANYTHING is great compared to that hell-hole.