We (my wife and I)are traveling to Italy from September 30 - October 13. We want to see Venice, Florence, Cinque Terre and Rome. We are flying into Milan and out of Rome. What is the best order of travel? Should we go from Venice to Florence to Cinque Terre or Venice to Cinque Terre to Florence?
Also, what type of train is the fastest between these cities?
Thanks for the help.
We're doing the same thing minus Rome next year. You're going to have to do a little backtracking, but not much. Go Milan to CT (2-3 hrs. changeover in Genoa), then go back to Milan, and take train to Venice (3hrs.), then straight from Venice to Florence (3 hrs.) and Florence to Rome (2 hrs.)
As for which trains are fastest, You'll be traveling on a high-speed most of the way except from Genoa to CT, and Venice to Florence.
Total cost according to rick steves best of Europe 2007: about 130 dollars. Oh, and that's for all one way 2nd class tickets. I suggest buying a rick steves map and highlighting your route so you can see it at a glance. If you don't you have to squint to see which is high-speed, which is a regular train, and which is a road.
I would agree with you Arnie, that the best route would be Milan to Venice, then Cinque Terre, Florence, Rome. We took the direct train to Venice from Milan, although you may have to go through Milano again on your way to CT. (But it's very simple.)
Well if you're heading down to Rome, time-wise, it would make the most sense to go from Venice to Cinque Terre then to Florence since Florence is about 2-2.5 hours south of La Spezia (main hub for CT). If you go Venice to Florence to CT, you'll have to backtrack when you head back to Rome. You'll have to change trains in Florence on your way to Rome from La Spezia most likely anyway.
Thanks!
Or, from Milan we went to the Cinque Terre (spent the day visiting Santa Margherita, Positano, and the towns of the Cinque Terre). Took the last express train back to Milan (don't miss it because the other trains won't get you back there until after 1 a.m. From Milan to Venice and from Venice to Florence and then to Rome. This way you're not backtracking.
