Hi Jeff
My initial thought was that Cinque Terre was a stop too many on a quite speedy trip - but is it there because you are flying back out of Pisa?
Verona I found rather touristy (albeit somewhat high status touristy) and some friends we were with lamented that change since they first visited it 2-3 decades ago. I’m told outside the centre it becomes more normal, but in 2 days you might not get outside of the centre. Worth getting good directions to Bottega del Vino, arguably as much for the food (classics done very skillfully) as the wine (I rather disliked the pretentiously capacious wine glasses for the Barolo). If you want to stay outside the city in wine country, then Massimago is a nice classy agriturismo in Mezzane di Sotto. If you end up here I’ll throw a couple of winery reccos in. I’ll second the recco for Soave, a charming place and not as scary to drive into as some larger places. The opera is indeed special, worth the money for the experience, though even with a cushion, the hard (mid-price) seating was enough to leave a dull ache for a week or two afterwards.
p.s. Interesting to see Mark’s recco - a restaurant I had listed as a possibility, but we never got there.
Lake Garda / Venice: Sorry, no experience there.
Cinque Terre: If you do end up there, expect busy paths, but with options of train or ferry to break it up. Apartments pretty cheap to rent there, and it does give you a sense of the place, including the rattle of the trains as they go by. Monterosso is the only village I’d be cautious about staying in as it’s more ‘normal’ and flat. Better to choose one of the others IMO as you get height and thus better views. If you had longer I’d be encouraging you onto the inland walks, almost bereft of tourists, but with 2 days you’d basically just end up doing the 4 coastal walks along with thousands of Rick Steves guide wielding tourists for company. Sorry of this sounds like a downer on the place, but with so many trying to ‘see it’ in 2-3 days, the paths get clogged. Much better walking elsewhere IMO
An alternative… especially if you don’t need to fly out of Pisa. Ferrara Surprisingly out of the tourist mainstream, but I wonder for how much longer. It’s well-placed for Verona/Venezia, making transfers really easy. The centre is mostly pedestrianised, but in addition to people on foot, this really is a city of bicycles and getting bikes for the day and touring the city walls is a great way to get more chilled exercise than CT. The place we’ve stayed at twice even had their own bicycles that were free to use. Some very good food and a great evening passeggiata along the two main pedestrianised arteries.
Also worth looking at Padova as a more convenient location if you want to focus on this tighter area (and that would really cut transfers down to 30-60 mins).
As ever I’m very focused on travel (transfer) time is rarely good holiday time, and neither is packing/unpacking, so I’d always favour less locations and more proper holiday time.
Regards
Ian