Cinque Terre to Venice by train - best route?

Teresa,

First, yes, you can buy the tickets in Vernazza. A good part of your trip will be on the intercity and regionale trains, which you buy as you need them, so you may as well buy the freccia (high speed) ticket all at the same time, at least a day or so before. The ticket station in Vernazza is very helpful to make sure you get on all the right trains. My very first time there I just went to them, said I need to get from point A to point B, and they gave me the easiest way.

As far as connections, that is up to you how many times you change trains. I prefer less changes, even if it takes a little longer. I don't mind the train ride, and it is one less time I have to get off and find another train.

On Trenitalia, the choices I saw (looking briefly) were-
Vernazza - Milano Centrale - Venezia S. Lucia (2 changes, 6hr 38 min)
Vernazza - La Spezia-Parma - Bologna Centrale - Venezia S. Lucia (3 changes, 6hr 20min)
Vernazza - Pisa Centrale - Firenze S.M.Novella - Venezia S. Lucia (3 changes, 4hr 52min)

Important things to remember are to use the Italian name of the city/station you are going to, not the
English! Validate all local train tickets! If you don't, and are caught, you will incur a huge fine, collected on the spot! Freccia seats are reserved, do not sit in someone elses!!

We went in the opposite direction. Train station is easy walk in Venice from B and B Sanstae. It was about a 4 hour ride to La Spezia. There you catch the train that runs every 15 minutes between the 5 villages. We purchased tickets in Venice I think the day of travel. To be safe could buy a few days ahead. Cinque Terre and Venice are must sees.

As mentioned above, the best you can do in terms of time is via Florence-Pisa-La Spezia, which still takes about 5 hours or more. Via Milan-Genoa it's a longer trip, although it might involve one change less.

However I often question on this site whether people plan their itinerary properly. Many people here plan to visit Venice, then Cinque Terre, then Florence, then Rome. That is not good planning. The proper sequence is Venice, then Florence, then Cinque Terre, and finally Rome which can be reached from the Cinque Terre by train via the Tyrrhenian coast rail line.

So what is your planned itinerary?

I think most people prefer 2 connections instead of 3, as long as those departures fit the times you want to leave or arrive. There's otherwise no special reason to recommend either route. If you have already come from Florence to Cinque Terre, then heading out to Venice via Milan will give you different (not better) scenery (or vice versa).

Theresa,

The shortest trip on that route appears to be the one mentioned above at 4H:52M via La Spezia / Pisa / Florence, departing at 09:28 and arriving at 14:20. Two of the trains on that route will be Regionale, one InterCity and one Freccia. That's the one I'd probably use. Although there are three changes, they're all relatively easy and there's about 10 minutes or so between each train so you don't have to rush. If you haven't dealt with changes before, you may want to do some "homework" on that, or post another note here.

As you'll be travelling in mid-May, it's possible that all the cheap tickets are sold out for the two fast trains (I didn't check), so the easiest solution is just to buy the tickets in Vernazza. Note that the tickets for the Regionale trains MUST be validated prior to boarding the train on the day of travel, or you'll risk hefty fines which will be collected on the spot. The two faster trains have compulsory reservations which will be provided with the tickets, and on those you'll be assigned a specific car no. (Carrozza) and seats (Posti). Those tickets don't have to be validated.

We did the opposite route and did the shorter route with the three changes. It's really easy to change trains and why not have more time in Venice or Cinque Terre than in the train stations? I purchased ours in advance because I'm just a planner that way, but none of the trains were sold out, and we were there mid-May two years ago.

Roberto - My itinerary is not what you mention. It's Cinque Terre, Venice, Dolomites (Ortesei). Yes, I know that I could do the Dolomites in the middle and shorten the train somewhat, but we found out after getting our flights that the Dolomites are a little iffy at that time of year, and are trying to get it as late in our trip as possible and hoping one of the cable cars will be open. Plus, we'll be in Venice during the week instead of the weekend, which I wanted :)

Thanks, Becky - that's good to hear. Changing trains wasn't difficult with only 10 minutes in-between? Are the trains all close together?