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Firstly I'm not into camping and camper vans (although my brother in law is) but mid August is peak holiday season in Italy - expect the roads to be crowded at weekends, 20 km queues at motorway bottlenecks are not unknown. And I would never recommend anyone to drive in Milan, Florence or any other big Italian city - narrow streets, mostly built 500 years ago to accommodate donkeys, complex one way systems, lack of parking and what there is is expensive, congestion charge zone (especially in Milan) and a lively traffic police - and of course you're in deep trouble if you try and drive in Venice (!!)

However, if you were to go to more rural areas such as the Lakes (Maggiore, Como, Garda etc) then they will be very busy but you wouldn't have the driving problems. Can't advise about campsites, but do expect them to be really busy. And for trips to the big cities,use local buses and trains for a day trip. Somewhere at the southern end of Lake Garda around Desenzano would be ideal for catching the train to both Verona and Venice for example, while there are regular trains into Milan from Como.

Forget campervans in Cinque Terre - the only access for non-residents is by train or boat. As for driving from Germany, yes it is easy, but if you cross Switzerlaand you will need to purchase a one-year pass for your car which is expensive (I think its SFr 70) and if you cross Austria you will also need a vignette, but theirs is cheaper as you can buy a 7-day pass for something like €10. However make sure your hire company knows you intend to cross international borders with the hired campervan,because there are insurance implications. And for the record, in Italy diesel is around €1.70per litre, and petrol €1.80,and there are tolls on motorways in Italy and on some parts of the Austrian motorway system including the Brenner pass from Innsbruck down into Italy