I would rather say that when people go in droves to someplace it’s for a reason.
Yes, I generally agree with you, but I thought I would warn the OP in case he would expect an “off the beaten path” place like in “barely any tourist present”. Cinque Terra might be less famous than, say, Venice, but nowadays, barely so. That’s not what I would have had in mind for an “off the beaten paths” place, that’s why I thought I’d mention it lets he would be dissapointed.
It’s Liverpool Street station, London, never shortened to ‘Liverpool station’. Although this sounds picky, going to the train station in Stansted and asking for a ticket to Liverpool might well get you just that.
There’s also numerous bus routes from London to Stansted, some of which are substantially cheaper than the train and don’t take a huge amount longer to get there - check www.baa.com for details.
Something I should point out: baggage allowances differ greatly in Europe compared to the States. In the States, in my experience, you get to check in two bags, no matter how big or heavy they are. On European airlines, it’s done by weight. Don’t get lulled into a false sense of security: on transatlantic flights, US rules tend to apply, but within Europe, on the “regular” airlines, you get 20 kg (44 lbs), and you pay extortionate rates per kilo over. On the low-cost airlines, it can be as low as 15 kgs (33 lbs).
Hand baggage is similarly restricted, by both size and weight, which differs per airline, and you’re only really allowed one bag (plus purse for the ladies, and/or laptop bag) - though this is not as strictly enforced.
Thanks guys, you’ve given me some excellent ideas. Consider me intruiged about cinque terra. To clarify, I wasn’t expecting to make some grand discovery of an unknown tourist spot, but am hoping to avoid tourist traps. As an example, when I lived in San Francisco for a time, I was greatly disappointed by Fisherman’s Wharf and underwhelmed by Alcatraz, but had a great time just wandering around the city. The best day I had was hiking around in the Golden Gate National Recreational Area just on the north side of the bay near Sausilito.
We’re definitely not going to try to make it from one airport to another in London on the same day - there’s just too much that can go wrong there (we have people to visit in London as well, which is why that’s more or less set as our initial destination). I’m seeing that easyjet has flights out of Gatwick to Prague – am I correct in thinking that’s going to be much more accessable than Stansted?
Portgual - I know it’s not on the Mediterranean 
Just a lazy post. It’s in the same band of climate and on water, which is where that grouping came from.
As far as baggage, we’re going to “Amazing Race” it, i.e. just backpacks travelling light. Hopefully that should keep us from running into any problems weight-wise.
I realize that two weeks is not a lot for Europe, which is the shame of it. I’ve already realized that it’s be tough to make four stop like I originally planned, because of travel. Slovenia, if you’re wondering. It’s just quirky sounding enough to be interesting to me. Maybe it’s only worth a day anyway? (aside: some day when I’m a kajillionaire, I want to make a stop in all the micro countries in Europe - Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino, etc - I realize that Rome would potentially get me the Vatican) Losing a day or half a day each time we travel to a new spot is the real killer to our time there.
Gatwick and Stansted are pretty much the same distance from London - Stansted to the north, Gatwick to the south. Both have fast rail links out of major London stations that take less than an hour (though I did hear some rumour about the Gatwick Express turning into a slow train). The ease of access will be dictated by where in London you’re staying.
I think the plan was to add stops en route, to ease overcrowding from places like East Croydon, and also to extend the GE services beyond the airport. But none of this will happen for a while, if at all.
Gatwick is much easier to get to/from if you’re dealing with antisocial flight times, but other than that, what jjimm said. Also, don’t rule out British Airways without comparing prices - I just did a quick check of prices around the dates you mention, and there’s little difference from Easyjet’s current fares.