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Driving from Lucca, Italy to Cinque Terre

Posted by (West Hollywood, California) on

We will be spending about 10 days in Italy in April 2016 and we would like to plan for a day trip (possibly with one overnight) to the towns of Cinque Terre. We are wondering what the options are for parking there as we will have a rental car and will be driving there from Lucca.

Is parking available near any of the five villages? Is one preferable to the others for some reason? Is parking usually available at lodging sites, such as rental apartments, hotels or B&Bs?

Would it simply make more sense to leave the rental car in Lucca and take the train to the Cinque Terre? (We will need the car later in the trip for touring other parts of Tuscany.)

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Best,
Paul & Drew

Posted by
32405 posts

Of the five towns, Monterosso has the best parking options. In addition, some of the hotels there have limited parking for guests. I'd suggest staying there and using that as a base to visit the other towns by local train or boat (if they're running).

Some options.....

  • Choose a hotel in Monterosso that offers parking
  • Use one of the large car parks in either the old town or new town areas
  • Park at the large lot at the train station in La Spezia and use trains from there.
Posted by
16895 posts

Rick's book suggests that parking in Monterosso would be relatively easy in April, which is not high season, or in La Spezia . Train from Lucca usually requires two hours and two connections each way, so you probably don't really want to return to Lucca to get the car.

Posted by
907 posts

Look at the option of renting a different car after you go to 5 Terre. It may just as expensive and you won't need it while in 5 Terre. If you drive, only Monterosso makes sense. 5 Terre by train from Lucca is easy. Renting a car in La Spezia would be easy as well.

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