We will be arriving in Venice on 10/15 to start a 4 week vacation in Italy and Greece. The second stop on our trip will be The Cinque Terre, where we will be staying in Riomaggiore. It looks like there are several routes to get there by train, so I was hoping for some recommendations. Thanks for your help!
Posted by
Green Bay
21370 posts
The routes through Florence are 5 to 6 hours while going through Milan is 7 hours or more. Some of the routes either way involve as few as 2 changes or as many as 4.
Posted by
OP
Hillsboro, OR, US
5 posts
Thanks everyone for your responses. It looks like going through Florence to La Spezia will be the quicker option, we just need to pay careful attention to the station changes. We are planning to go to Florence after The Cinque Terre, then to Sorrento, back up to Rome for several days, and fly to Athens from there. After a few days in Athens we will take a ferry to Santorini for three days, then back to Athens to catch a flight home. Thanks again for the great tips!
Bill
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32404 posts
Bill, There are two "basic" routes from Venice to the Cinque Terre, either via Milan or via Florence. The times vary from 5H:45M to about 7H:45M with 2 - 3 changes. You'll have to decide whether time or number of changes is most important. The trip I'd probably use is a departure from Venezia S.Lucia at 08:35, arriving Riomaggiore at 14:20 (time 5H:45M, 3 changes at Firenze SMN, Pisa Centrale and La Spezia Centrale, current fare at €58.50 PP). The first leg will be via Freccia high speed train, and the remaining legs via Regionale trains (DON'T forget to validate!). Use the Trenitalia website to see which rail trips best fit your criteria. How are you getting from Italy to Greece? Happy travels!
Posted by
Tampa, FL, USA
1054 posts
I just got back from italy and did that same train trip. We opted for the 7:35 am departure from Venice and arrived in Florence. We had a easy connection there for a local train to La Spezia. We had about an hour in La Spezia for our train to Vernazza. I thougth about the 8:35 but we don't mind getting up early and wanted more time in the CT. our BnB in Venice let us pay and checkout the night before. So we just woke up and went to the train station. We did take a 6:15 water bus ride to get to the station on time from a couple stops before St. Marks. We slept on the trains so it made up for getting up early that day.
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA
7737 posts
That's one of the challenges of the CT - It just takes so darn long to get there!