Cinque Terre in early September?

The Cinque Terre are beautiful - not sure how much you're planning to spend thee but I wouldn't do more than 2 or 3 days. Portofino / Santa Margherita is closeby so I'd do that as well. Not too far from Lucca which is awesome and obviously as you noted Florence.

I found Camogli & Santa Margherita Ligure beautiful and peaceful, with good food and wine.

You're better off with a car although you'll have no use for it once you're at your destination, whether in the Cinque Terre or in Lucca, Portofino, Firenze, etc...

+1. I have no idea what the weather's like in September, though. May want to research that.

I was there in September about three years back. Not overly crowded but a lot of tourists nevertheless.

Weather was the exception to the rule. We were there for two days and some sort of a stormwave hit Italy exactly then. Right after Cinque Terre the temperatures returned to the normal 25+ degrees celsius level. It's warm but not awfully hot as usually in July / August.

Hiking between villages is essential but it's handy to take trains between them too. The westernmost village has a beach. You may want to investigate staying in for La Spezia for example (as we did) because accommodation is quite expensive and scarce in the Cinque Terre villages. The train works well from La Spezia and gets you there in 10-15 minutes. Depends on your budget of course.

The train from La Spezia to Pisa is about an hour, and from there it was probably one hour more to Florence. Lucca is there in between. And may I recommend Bologna as well. Because train works out so cheap and saves you from driving on Italian motorways, I'd definitely recommend taking trains between cities. We rented a car for a couple of days in Tuscany and had more near misses on road than all of my other life combined.

The Cinque Terre area is beautiful and lives up to its reputation. Have fun.

I wouldn't have high expectations as far as the beach is concerned. It's very small and the area is more cliffs than sand (that's the whole charm of the place)

I had planned to go to Cinque Terre this May as part of my 'jaunt' also taking in Rome, Florence, Siena and Milan. But I hear that some trails are closed due to previous flooding etc. Anyone been recently please? Should I give it a miss this time and go elsewhere please?

We went last May, and the trail was closed between two of the towns, but we hiked (more strolled, for Americans) along the trail between a couple of the towns, as far as we could.

We loved it, but I was with my young family, so we have much different priorities than many. Quiet and simple, but with great food and wine.

We had our pick of a lot of private apartments we saw on VRBO, and loved the small, simple place we rented in Corniglia. I would recommend staying at least two nights so you're not rushing around traveling all the time. This was only the second trip I have ever been on without having a car, which was a big leap, but it turned out to be very easy, cheap, and a big relief to just hop on the trains. And the trains between the 5 villages are quick and easy, and like $3 or something. Great food, a lot of tourists, but not overwhelming, not crowded in May, and probably not in Sept., and very nice and charming. Do it!

David