I have been reading about this place and it sounds so wonderful. We have an apartment in Rome for 9 nights and originally planned a day trip to Florence. Are we crazy to try to fit in Cinque Terra? Thought we could take the train there and stay overnight and then travel to Florence the next day. Because we already have the Rome apartment, we don't want to spend 2 nights in Cinque Terra, but thought we could swing 1. Also, we would have to travel light because we would not have a place to store luggage for the day in Florence.
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
The Cinque Terre is wonderful but a trip from Rome would take about 5.0hrs. You wouldn't see a lot in just an afternoon. Then, it's 2.5hrs to Florence the next day. Then, it's about 2.0hrs back to Rome. Overall, you'll get about 1 hour of siteseeing for every hour on the train. We always recommend against that type of tourism but, people seem to do it all the time. For a day trip to Florence, you can do this on a Eurostar in just over 3.5hrs round trip. You'll get to blink at a few sites before running off.
BTW, both the Rome and Florence train stations have staffed luggage storage. It's a great service.
Posted by
Jonesboro, Arkansas, USA
606 posts
you'll get about 1 hour of site seeing for every
hour on the train. We always recommend against
that type of tourism
That's true, if you're going for purposes of standard sightseeing...to see all the "big" sites and do all the "big" things. Trying to do a lot in a few hours (after traveling for hours to get there) is a killer.
But in my mind, the ideal would be to travel there and do NOTHING other than look at the place, sit and have drinks and talk and watch the people, enjoy the views, enjoy a good meal, a good night's sleep, and head out that next day. That wouldn't be bad at all.
In my opinion, traveling a half day to Cinque Terra, spending one night, then moving on after not really doing anything "big" there is fine. It's better than not seeing Cinque Terra at all!
Posted by
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
41 posts
I agree with the last post...Travel isn't always about the "logical" thing to do- sometimes you just have to go for it!
We too are going to be going from Rome to Cinque Terre. The train ride leaving Rome early in the morning at 7:30 takes approximately 4 hours to get to La Spezia direct. That leaves you with the whole leisurely afternoon to explore the area and a nice relaxing evening to soak up the atmosphere.