Cinque Terre in February

The C/T is more of a Summer place.
I went to Venice once in February, and we just about froze our tails off. They had wooden sidewalks all over St. Marks Square and water was lapping up on the square from high tides. It was pretty miserable there.
Whenever we're traveling, I go to Wikipedia and check out the month by month weather where I want to go. It's got to where we seldom travel until the last day or two of March, and usually the winter weather's broken by then.

I am sure the trains will be running: the issue is finding lodging and possibly a limited selection of restaurants.

Trail washouts are more likely that time of year and any that have occurred during the winter may not have been repaired.

Trains between the villages won't be an issue (the locals have to use them to get around too) but wet/foul weather can and does close hiking trails, and ferries won't be running. I'd advised on another of your posts to avoid this region unless the weather was favorable; there's little to do if it's too nasty to spend your time outside.

We were there just after Christmas in 2000. From what I’ve read about the summer crowds, off-season is the only time I would go! We had wonderful weather and no problems finding restaurants and stores open. Boats were not running between the towns, but trains were running. I don’t know about the trails.

Knome,

February is probably not the best time-of-year to visit the Cinque Terre as many of the hotels and other tourist businesses will be closed or operating on reduced hours. The "official" opening of the tourism season is 1 April, although some businesses seem to be operating before that.

The trains will of course be running normally as that area is on the line between La Spezia and Genova. The locals still need some way to get around. The boats will not be running and even in summer, they don't operate if it's windy and the seas are "choppy".

Weather could be an issue with rain and cooler temperatures, and there has been snow there at times.

The Sentiero Azzurro trails may "officially" be closed at that time of year, although I'm not sure if anyone enforces that. One point to note is that the Corniglia - Manarola and Manarola - Riomaggiore segments of those trails have been closed for several years, and are still closed AFAIK. In rainy conditions, the trails may be treacherous and hiking them would be a miserable experience.

This site is a few years old, but you may find it helpful - https://www.walksofitaly.com/blog/cinque-terre/winter-off-season .

David, we visited Venice in Feb y years ago and couldnt recomend it more, beautiful crisp weather, only one wet day, the opportunity to experience an aqua alta, and best of all no crowds. I recomend Venice in the Winter to all my friends. I think CT would be the same, if you get crisp weather it would be stunning but best of all no crowds! But i have heard alot of businesses are closed then, so do some research on that. Think Girl in Florence blog did a post on travelling to CT out of season which might be worth reading?

How many days were you planning on being there? How do you feel about just hanging in your room reading a book or whatever? If you have tons of time, and are the type of person who enjoys just spending time reading, etc. then it could be a good time. But I'd plan for several days so at least one might (still no guarantee) be nice and sunny. But if you just want to include the CT on a tour of lots of places and only have a day and would be really bummed out if it was too rainy to go out then I would skip it in favor of cities where there are inside things to do. Another option would be to base in Genoa for a few days and plan on going to the aquarium or a museum on rainy days and doing day trip to the CT towns on 'nice' days. At that time of year a day trip won't encounter too terrible crowds.

Thank you all for your feedback. CT has been high on my bucket list and I hope I can make it happen. It sounds like the weather is the biggest factor that may or may not keep this doable. Unpredictability equals the joys of travelling :-)