Best way to travel from Florence to the Cinque Terre

From Florence to the five Cinque Terre towns is served mostly by regional trains that don't offer seat assignments, don't sell out, and don't have advance-purchase discounts. So I'd buy those tickets in the station. But be careful not to board any reserved InterCity train with a regional train ticket.

Looking Up Train Schedules and Routes Online gives you the Deutsche Bahn train schedule link and tips for using it. Or Trenitalia.com has the same info in a different format, plus prices. Some regional train schedules are not yet published past June 10, so use a current date, or wait a couple of weeks before looking.

Thank you!

Hi. It is best to wait and buy these tix when you are in Florence. For schedules, see trenitalia.com. Use Firenze (Tutte Le Stazione) name for Florence and one of the CT towns (e.g. Vernazza). Use a date for next week to see the full schedule, and be sure to change the 'hour' on your search to 6 or 7. Once you get to CT, you can buy the CT card if desired, or just buy individual tix. Enjoy your trip!

I have another question: We also want to visit Pisa on the same day we arrive in Florence from Venice (11:30 a.m.). Should I buy those tickets at the station? We're doing this because we read that a quick trip to Pisa is adequate for those who just have to see the real thing (Italian neophytes) and also because we have to squeeze as much as possible into this trip since we'll only be in Italy for eight days. Thank you.

About the Cinque Terra Treno Card....
Once you've arrived in the region from Florence (usually La Spezia), there is a card which will allow you unlimited, 2nd-class, regionale train travel between La Spezia and Levanto for 24 hours. The five villages of the CT are in between these two points.

As tickets from one village to another are running 4 euro or so, this can be a cost-saver if you intend to try and visit most of the villages in one day. It costs 16 euro so you'd break even on it in 4 journeys, and you MUST validate it before boarding your first train (this is very important!)

http://www.cinqueterre.eu.com/en/cinque-terre-card

I assume that you're actually staying in the Cinque Terre, not day-tripping there as well. So you can visit Pisa as a stop on the way to the Cinque Terre. Pisa Centrale station has bag storage.

Yes, buy the Pisa tix in Italy also. Also, note that Pisa is on way to CT, so to make best use of time, you could go to Pisa as planned, then continue on to CT and stay a night or two there then back to Florence. Would avoid duplicate trains trips to Pisa, and also CT is best enjoyed with a night or two there instead of only being there with the day-tripping crowds. Enjoy your trip!

If day tripping to Pisa (no need of luggage storage), you might look at taking a direct train from Florence to Pisa San Rossore station instead of to the larger Pisa Centrale - because San Rossore is a closer walk to the Tower. Otherwise, expect to take a local bus from Pisa Centrale to the Field of Miracles where the Tower is - or walk about 30-40 minutes each way between Pisa Centrale and the Tower. (Not a terrible walk actually).

If you will have a working smart phone in Italy, you can use the Trenit app to buy train tickets with your phone (no need to print them out). Otherwise, you'll be buying from ticket machines with cash (unless you have a chip and PIN credit card - most Americans don't) or buying from a person at a ticket counter. The Trenit app lets you pay with Paypal or with a US credit card - and just show the ticket on your phone on the train if inspected. If you buy a paper ticket for any regional train at the station, you MUST validate it before boarding the train at a machine (stamp the ticket in the machine).

There is more to Pisa than just the Tower and the Field of Miracles but most tourists it seems never see it. There are some interesting buildings along the Arno river in Pisa and the university near there is not exactly charming but worth a look. But most go just to see the tower.

With the short amount of time you have, (7 days) a day trip to the CT simply does not make sense, train is 2 1/2 hours each way. You'll see plenty of coastline on your cruise.

Save it and Pisa for your next trip

From the OP's first post:

....but I need some advice on patching the day trip together.

So the intent looks to be the CT as a day trip from Florence. This does involve considerable time on the trains but there are two specific ones you should look at:

To the CT:
07:38 AM, Firenze Campo Di Marte > 09:11, La Spezia Centrale
Total time: 01:33

From the CT:
20:03 PM La Spezia Centrale> 21:40, Firenze Campo Di Marte
Total Time: 01:37

These trains are direct and the fastest way to/from Florence. The Campo Di Marte station isn't as centrally located as S.M. Novella but worth a short bus/taxi ride to shave time off the rail piece.

I gotta go with Kathy. I'm not a fan of that much time on trains to do CT and not stay a night or two. It's short shrift to what is for some a peak experience in Europe. CT isn't quite like Pisa, with a church and a tower and another site all clustered. It's spread out and full of natural beauty, charming people, lovely structures, beaches and death marching German tourists. If you spend 4 to 8 hours there, you can't really enjoy it fully, give it it's due.

Thanks for the good advice. I'll forget the CT for now. How about recommendations on day trips by bus to interesting, cute towns within a reasonable distance of Florence?

By train...

Pistoia- medieval town, lots of art. 30 minutes.

Montecatini Terme-beautiful Spa town. Take the funicular up to the old town of Alta. 15 min from Pistoia.

Lucca- walled city. Walk or ride the ramparts. 1 hour from Florence.

By bus...

Greve in Chianti...charming chianti town. Mostly flat. 1 hr.

Siena... The queen of hill towns. Il Campo and the Duomo. 1 hour.

Thanks for this and the brief descriptions. They all sound wonderful. I'll do more research online so I can figure out what works best for the three of us. I'm excited!