Florence to Cinque Terre?

Most of the trains from Florence to the CT will be Regionale trains. I must disagree with Bob above as your railpass will get you a free ride on the Regionale trains. I think what Bob meant to say (and I agree) is that for these trains, you really wasted a lot of money on a railpass. The train fare from Florence to the CT on the Regionale trains is about 10E ($14). Next, on these runs, there is the occasional IC train that you might be on. These trains require a seat reservation supplement of 3E on top of your railpass. You must purchase the seat reservation before boarding the train.

Train from CT south to La Spezia. train to Florence. Eurailpass will be of no benefit.

You will have to change trains at La Spezia Centrale. There is a Regionale train about every hour from Firenze SMN which goes directly to La Spezia and takes about 2 1/2 hours. Unfortunately, it arrive a few minutes after the local train for the CT towns leaves so you have to wait almost an hour at La Spezia for the local. The 2nd cl. fare from Florence to any of the CT towns is 10 Euros. There are also frequent trains from Florence which require a change of train at Pisa and have a shorter wait at La Spezia. Some of these itineraries involve IC trains for the Pisa to La Spezia leg which have a higher fare of 16.30 Euros and may make your trip about 15 minutes shorter. Hardly worth the extra money. See www.trenitalia.it for schedules. Be sure to use the Italian name for Florence, i.e., Firenze and for other cities. Finally, if you have the choice, don't waste part of your Eurailpass for this trip.

Thank all of you for your rapid replies. I have not yet purchased my eurail pass. It will be for France and Italy as my journey will be taking me to both of these countries this June.
I want to do the least number of train changes and get from Florence to the Cinque Terre ASAP. I gather that La Spetzia (sp?) would be the best place to change for the train to CT. I am going to check the schedules as suggested. I will continue to look for your helpful ideas.

I was just checking the train schedules from Florence to La Spezia to get to the Cinque Terre. Not too terrible. Then I continued to explore the way from the CT to my next stop which is Nice. OMG! I had no idea it would be so complicated AND I wouldn't get into Nice until after 6:00 PM! Anybody out there with an easy (easier) route?

For your journey from Florence to the CT, there are no direct trains. On most runs, you change trains at La Spezia Centraled. On some runs, you change at Pisa. On a few runs, you change at both. You can easily see the runs and departure times you prefer at www.trenitalia.com. Just don't put in a date later than this May for trip planning. Also, put in an early time to see the early trains. You can always select next to see later trains.

Larry, I went to the Italian rail info site you suggested, but it was all in Italian and I wasn't sure that I entered the right info.

Getting to the CT from Florence isn't a problem. As others have stated, you will need to take the regional train to La Spezia. The travel time to the CT is minutes. In fact, you wouldn't think you were so close to the CT until you go through the first tunnel and see the Med out the window. Awesome.
I was traveling out of LaSpezia to Zurich with a Railpass when a mix-up in reservations had me knee-to-knee with other travelers in a 2nd class compartment (and I am only 5'2"). Bottom line, be sure to book your exit when you are going to the CT, and verify the date and time. It was a long ride.

frances, For the trip from Florence to the Cinque Terre, you'll have to decide whether shortest travel time or fewest changes is the most important criteria. The time will vary somewhat depending on which of the five villages will be your destination. For example using Riomaggiore (the most southerly village) as the destination, the fewest changes will take 3H:09M, with one change at La Spezia Centrale. The shortest trip is 2H:34M with two changes in Pisa and La Spezia. One point to note is that most trains will require a change in La Spezia, as that's the connection point for the local train (or Genova if coming from the north). These schedules are of course subject to change. The trip from the C.T. to Nice is not overly complicated. You could (for example) use a train departing Monterosso (the most northerly village) at 10:55, arriving Nice Ville at 16:06 (time 5H:11M, two changes at Genova Piazza Principe and Ventimiglia). Most / all trains must change at Ventimiglia, as that's the border transit point. One point to note is that your Railpass will NOT include the reservation fees that are compulsory on some trains on the routes you'll be travelling. You'll have to pay "out of pocket" for those. Especially in Italy, you DON'T want to be caught without a valid reservation, as you'll be fined on the spot and it WON'T be cheap! If you purchase P-P tickets, the reservation fees will be included. Happy travels!

Frances, At the top of the trenitalia.com page, on the right half, you will see a british flag. Click on that and it switches the language to english. That is a common custom on web pages for tourists. Ciao!

Ted I've always wondered why they use the Union Jack and not the Stars and Stripes to indicate the English language. There are a lot more of us Yanks than there are Brits. Maybe we should start a campaign to change that.

@ Robert, Actually, I've seen a few European websites that feature a "split" flag, with a US flag on one side and a British flag on the other, separated by a diagonal line in the centre. I suspect they feature the British flag more prominently as the Brit's travel more frequently in Europe than most other nationalities as they're so close. I've encountered people from the U.K. who "do weekends" in Italy and other parts of Europe, simply as the flights are so cheap. Prague is a popular destination for "stags" (easy flights and cheap beer!). Cheers!

"I've always wondered why they use the Union Jack and not the Stars and Stripes to indicate the English language. There are a lot more of us Yanks than there are Brits. Maybe we should start a campaign to change that." Perhaps because the language is called English, not American. I know it's the flag of Great Britain but if they used the white with red cross of the flag of England only the English would know what it meant.