Cinque Terra and Tuscany, Italy

Where does your tour go?

The fast trains between Florence and Venice carry both 1st- and 2nd-class cars. The 2nd-class seats are very comfortable to me. You can visit the Seat61 website for pictures. Just keep scrolling down. That website also has a great deal of very useful information for the first-time traveler. I think you'll find pictures of luggage racks.

When you take the train, you are normally responsible for handling your own luggage. There is no baggage car. Travel light so you can lift your suitcase onto the train and maneuver it to the place you're going to leave it during the trip. Train cars normally have some luggage racks near the doors (occasionally located elsewhere). There are also overhead racks where you can place bags of approximately carry-on size. Sometimes some of the seats are placed back to back, in which case there may be space in between for a bag.

Are you sure you want to go to Venice Mestre rather than Venice-Santa Lucia? Mestre is not where tourists generally stay (though I have done it, to save money).

May's one of the best months to visit the region. Sounds as you're going to have a great time.
If you want to see the Cinque Terre, you'd do best to fly into Pisa as it's the larger and closer airport. You'd catch a train up to La Spezia and switch to a short local train ride into the C/T. To get to Florence, you'd reverse your route and it's 1 hour east of Pisa via local train.
You have not said how much time you're spending in Florence, but it's an important city worthy of 3 days. Venice is another 3 day city.
Most of the Tuscany travelers are visiting is south of Florence--going from hilltown to hilltown. Staying in the countryside should be secondary to spending sufficient time in Florence and Venice.
I urge you to look at Rick Steves' packing list and travel lighter--not heavy. Only person you can count on to handle luggage is you. I travel with 22 lbs. maximum (10 kg.) and a 21" rolling carry on bag and can do so indefinitely.

You don't say if you plan to spend time in Venezia, so I assume you are asking about Venezia Mestre because that's where your tour begins?

The sights in Cinque Terre and Tuscany are different from Croatia. However, does your three days in Florence includes day trips to rural Tuscany ( Florence is in Tuscany) and the CT? So no time in Florence itself? Is your Croatia trip with Rick Steves? You need much more time to see Florence, the CT and Tuscany. Spend all your extra time in Florence. Or in Venice. Croatia was part of the Venetian Empire so that would work well with your tour.
If you want to go to Venice, take a train to Venezia Santa Lucia. Mestre is outside of Venice
across the water on the mainland, a city.

Thank you for the replies.

My 10 days tour covers the Balkan and Adriatic Sea visiting Split, Mostar, Ston, Pula, Zadar, Dubronvnik, Sarjevo, Lake Bled, Plitvice, Ljubljana city,etc.

Visiting Cinque Terre (CT) and Tuscany (T) is a side trip before my tour. I'm studying this option only it warrants the costs and convenience of getting there.

The best way to get to both is from Florence instead of Pisa as the train journey to Venice is much shorter.
I plan to spend 3 nites in Florence, of which 2 days will be for CT and T.
I checked Viator ( or similar) do full day trips from Florence. In view of time constraint and likely language problem, I prefer to join the day trips instead of doing on my own. I have been to most of the attractions in Florence before so it is not necessary to spend more days there.

My meeting place with the guided land tour in Venice is very early at the Marco Polo Airport .
Therefore I will definitely need to stay a nite close to the airport.
Is the airport nearer from Venice Mestre or Venice -Santa Lucia train station?

I am looking for an economical and convenient way to see CT and T. However if my land tour covers better or fairly similar sights, I may not need to visit them. Hence feedback from those who have visited these two places and the Balkan states is much appreciated.

I haven't been to Ston or Pula. Otherwise, I don't think your Adriatic tour is taking you to places that are all that similar to the Cinque Terre or Tuscan hill towns. Perhaps others will have a different perspective.

Sorry I forgot to mention that I do not need to visit Venice, been there many times.
Still concerned about carrying luggage into the train.
I had boarded the train from London Heathrow Airport to Picaldilly Circus carrying a big 20 lb luggage and a carry on bag some years ago. Not sure if the train in Italy is similar in terms of the seat and luggage area for passengers. The train in London underground is has steps at the train door so one has to lift the luggage up into the train versus just pushing it if there are no steps ( easier with heavy luggage).

Yes, generally you must lift your suitcase up a few steps onto the train. It is not my favorite part of train travel, though packing light helps. For shorter distances buses can be a decent alternative; sometimes they're even faster than trains. I know for many Americans buses are a second-best option, but for me they are not. It's great to just roll the suitcase around to the side of the bus and lift it into the luggage bay! Sometimes the bus-company employee even does the lifting.

Alas, a bus isn't a great alternative between Florence and Venice.

I would appreciate some help regarding the different trains from Florence to Venice.

Does Frecciarganto train has better seat plan and newer than Frecciarossa train?

Is italo train more comfortable and has better seats than the above two?

Does anyone know if I book a train ticket from Florence SMN to Venice St Lucia, can I stop at Venice Mestre as I believe all trains to Venice stop at both stations and ends at St Lucia?

I checked Italotreno.it website and found the pricing is better , no service fee and there is senior rate. Unfortunately it is not a secured website. Does anyone use this website before or know there is another secured English website for italo trains ?

Why some itinerary allow show of seats while other are given only after payment is made?

If we do not like the assigned seats, can we change seats onboard at any carriage of the same class?

Is it true that once all online tickets for a scheduled time is sold out from both italiaRail and Rail Europe, there are still tickets left for that time at the train ticket office?

Is it advisable to book our tickets in advance rather than buy on the departure day as the price is usually lesser even with the service fee included?

Thank you and hope to get some good advice and info soon.

Are you planning to day-trip from Florence to the CT or stay in one of the CT towns? Day-tripping from Florence is generally a bad idea, because of the long journey there and back.

1. Purchase train tickets from the official rail site of Italy, trenitalia, not Rail Europe. They do not sell out. However, the cheaper tickets CAN sell out.

2. Italy and Croatia are definitely NOT the same ! There are similarities and you will see the Italian influence in Croatia. BUT, the hill towns of Tuscany do not look like Dubrovnik.

3. If you are staying 3 nights in Florence, you have 2 days in Florence. So you don't have any day FOR Florence. One day is your trip into Tuscany and the other is Cinque Terre. Everyone is correct - the Cinque Terre journey from Florence is a long travel day. Staying in Cinque Terre gives you a delightful feel for the area. I would do a day for Florence and a day out into Tuscany. That could be a wine tour or you could take the train to Lucca or Siena on your own.