Day trip to Cinque Terre from Pisa

Kristen,

My preference would be to make the day trip to the Cinque Terre and drop Pisa. If you just want to see the Tower, you can make a quick stop and then carry on.

When you reach La Spezia (or Genova), you'll have to transfer to the smaller local train. Are you interested in hiking the trails, or just having a quick look around? As far as "the best places to see", each of the five villages has it's own "charms". You might enjoy stopping for a nice hot meal with Pesto, as the CT is the area where it was invented.

Monterosso (on the north) is the largest of the villages, with the best sandy beach and the most tourist facilities. Riomaggiore (on the south) is the smallest. Vernazza is a big favourite with most RS readers, but Manarola is a beautiful spot also. Corniglia is located up on a hill, so probably gets fewer visitors than the others.

Cheers!

I think you are talking about stopping by Pisa on your way to stay in CT. Pisa is good for a stop to take the obligatory picture of the tower and visit the Cathedral and Baptistry.

CT requires a train to La Spezia, then a transfer to the local train. If only as a daytrip, I would skip Pisa. You will want as much time as you can get in CT. Take the train to whichever town you want, take some of the hiking trail for some good views (the trail further north is more difficult while the southern end is an easy walk) and catch a local train when you think you need to start getting back.

There is really nothing in Pisa for the tourist but the leaning tower and adjoining historical grounds. To most travelers, the tower is a must. From the train station, it's a 30-min walk in and the same coming back to the train station. To make it quicker, you can take the bus from the front of the train station to the tower. Go early. The reason for the "quick trip to Pisa" suggestion is that the Cinque Terre is easily worth the whole day. It's actually worth several days but if one day is all you have...

The following is a suggested 1-day visit to the Cinque Terre. 1) stop first in La Spezia and go into the TI office in the station. Buy a 1-day Cinque Terre Treno card. They'll give you trail information and a train schedule with the card. 2)jump on the next local train to Riomaggiore. Walk through Riomaggiore down to the water to pick up the coastal trail. 3)walk the coastal trail from Riomaggiore to Manarola (about 25 minutes and very flat). There is a cost but it's free with your CT Treno card. 4) Tour Manarola and go to the beginning of the trail to Corniglia. 5)take the trail from Manarola to the Corniglia train station (about 45min). You don't need to hike up and see Corniglia. 6)take the local train to Monterosso. Tour Monterosso and have lunch (about 2hrs). 7)take the local train to Vernazza. Tour Vernazza (about 60-90min). 8)take the late afternoon or early evening train back to Lucca.

Note that your CT Treno card provides unlimited train travel from La Spezia to Levanto. This includes all 5 CT towns. It also covers the costs on the coastal trails. It's a long day but it will work.

Thanks for the help. I mainly just want to see the Leaning Tower in Pisa so hopefully we can fit it all in one day. Are there any "must sees" over there or is everthing a "must see"?

We recently stopped in Pisa on the way between Florence and Cinque Terre (Vernazza). I was surprised by how impressed I was by the tower. As many pictures as I had seen, I was still really struck by how much it leans! And, we thoroughly enjoyed climbing it (it's wild to feel the lean), and the views from the top are spectacular.

While we expected it to be a touristy thing that we might regret as a waste of time, I would not have wanted to miss it. It really is a beautiful building, as are the others on the Field of Miracles. After stopping at the Tower (for a 12:00 climb), we were in Vernazza by 3:00 (drove, parked in the Vernazza lot, then took the shuttle into town).

For a day trip, I think that it would be too much to get an appreciation for CT. I would recommend at least 1 (ideally, 2) night in CT. But, if you are going to squeeze it into a day trip, get an early start.

Kristen - I stayed in Lucca last year and did some day tripping from there, including to Pisa and the CT. You'll need to have well coordinated train schedules to go to Pisa, see the tower and then get up the coast to the CT. Others have given you advice about how to get to the CT from La Spezia. Spend some time on the Trenitialia website to test train schedules. It's the transfers that cause complications. You can easily get to Pisa from Lucca. Then you have to allow the time to get to the tower from the station (I might spring for a cab in in this instance). I think the Tower is worth seeing. Then you get back to the Pisa train station and should have plenty of connections to La Spezia. Yes, a single afternoon is far too shart of a time to enjoy the small village atmosphere but you have a very good one waiting for you back in Lucca. I'd go to Vernazza to look at the harbor and probably Manarola to stroll around. Then back on the train to La Spezia which is where you need to figure out the most efficient connection back to Lucca. That's where the Trenitalia website will help your planning.

Kristen, have you thought of doing the Pisa side trip on another day? The trains there are so cheap, I'd consider separating the trips. I think you'd be glad you gave a whole day to the Cinque Terre.

Thanks for the help. I'm in Lucca for 4 days so maybe we can split it up and do the two separate. Are all of the areas in Cinque Terre far from each other? I mainly want to see the harbor area because it looks beautiful, I'm sure all the areas are just as exciting.

The closest to having a harbor is Vernazza, Rick's favorite. The towns are only a few minutes apart by train but about 60-90 minutes of walking depending on which towns and how much of a hiker you are. We hiked the whole distance in one day (including our 8 year old daughter) and used the train to get back. We considered it a leisurely pace, but we hike often and regularly hike trails that are considered difficult.

We were there near the end of October and our biggest complaint was wanting more water than we carried. September is likely to have warm days so carry plenty of fluids for hiking.

I don't know how often he does it (but, it looked like a regular operation), but on the 7th of July, on the trail between Monterosso and Vernazza, there was an industrious guy who has a lemonade "stand" set up.

He makes it as you're waiting, and he also sells limoncino - not something you want to drink while hiking!

Lucca is special and the rail trip to Pisa is easy...about 30 minutes each way. Some trains stop at a different station (Near the University) within a ten minute walk to the Tower, Baptistry and Cathedral so you may want to check for those at the station. We got on such a train by accident without realizing it until we tried to follow Rick's walk- the tower looked closer and it was. For lunchtime, we passed by the obvious restaurants near the attraction and headed down to Via Santa Maria 151. There is an outstanding sandwich shop there called Paninoteca Il Canguro. Moderate prices, excellent food and cold and wonderful Peroni Beer. In Lucca, we stumbled across a very good restaurant, not included in Rick's recommendations.Trattoria Gigi is in a small piazza next to the Old Market, a fabulous pastry shop and an excellent grocery store. Ciao. George