Florence to Cinque Terre

Cat, From Florence to La Spezia by train is 2.5 hrs, changing trains in Pisa. In La Spezia you take a little milk train to the C.T. You would be better planning your trip from Florence unless there is a reason you want to go to Milan. A direct train from Milan would take 3hrs or one that changes in Genoa 4hrs. When are you leaving for Italy and which town do you want to stay in? From there you can zero in on a place to stay.....don't worry everything will be fine. It's not as hard as it sounds, your going to have a great time!

Thanks for Florence info. No reason to fly into Milan first. I am a good traveler but usually am with other person. I am open to any of the CT villages to base from. Suggestions?

Assume there is a train right from Florence airport to La Spezia?

CAT the Amerigo Vespucci airport (Florence) is not a large airport. Flying in there is great (we did it) but no U.S. carriers fly in non-stop. With U.S. and European carriers flying from the U.S., you will change planes somewhere (i.e. paris, london, Frankfurt, Zurich). We flew in on our United mileage points so United did a good job of getting us into Florence. We were on their Star Alliance partner Lufthansa and went through Frankfurt.

You might look into Pisa airport which is larger and closer to the CT. I'm pretty sure that Delta has non-stops into Pisa from JFK but you would have to route to JFK to pick up that flight. LAX does have some great non-stops on several international carriers to Europe.

Thanks for your tips.

CAT, I wouldn't assume a night train from Florence airport to La Spezia. In fact, there is no train at all from the airport to the main Florence train station. There is a frequent bus, however. Or, the taxi is about 20Euro plus a few Euro for luggage (they do charge extra for luggage). Once at Florence SMN, you will take the local regional trains to La Spezia Centrale. These are not night trains. To get to the CT, you will change trains in either Pisa or La Spezia or both depending on the train run.

Cat:

When we went last September, we took the overnight flight out of JFK to Pisa. At the airport at Pisa, you can purchase your train ticket to whichever of the five towns you are using as your destination. At the end of the airport in Pisa there is a station that runs a "captive" train to Pisa Centrale, where you transfer to your train to La Spezia Centrale, where you transfer to the local train to your destination, in our case, Monterosso. It was quite easy. Of course, whether you want to route from LAX to JFK to Pisa is another story altogether, but if you can get from LAX directly to Pisa, it's something to consider.

Pisa sounds good, since you would go through Pisa from Florence anyway.

CAT,

My suggestion for flights would be to find the best price and most convenient flight schedule from your area. I suspect you'll find more flights to Milan than Florence (you might also check Pisa as well).

Regarding the rail trips from either city, the time and distances are very similar so I wouldn't let that be a factor in the decision.

For example, the travel time on a direct train from Milano Centrale to La Spezia Centrale is listed at 3H:13M (I didn't check the C.T. villages as I didn't know which one you were staying in). From La Spezia you'll transfer to the local train for the short run to the C.T. villages. The trip from Firenze S.M.N. to La Spezia Centrale via direct train is listed as 2H:22M.

However, you'll also need to factor in the time spent travelling from either airport to the central station, so overall I don't think the small difference in travel times is really significant.

Happy travels!

A few of thoughts. 1) You don't have to go to Pisa from Florence to get to the CT....you go to LaSpezia and transfer (you can also go to Lucca). As one writer said, it's about 2 1/2 hours which include a couple of brief stops in small towns and riding through some beautiful mountains. If possible, try to arrive in the morning to have plenty of daylight, especially when you get to the CT. 2) You can get a taxi from the airport to the Milan train station and get the 3 hour direct train to Monterosso, the first town you'll come to in the CT. More hotels here, but Vernazza is the most charming and laid back town of all of them (in my opinion). 3) The trains stop at all of the towns and you'll need to get a pass to hike the trails and use the trains. If you get a rail pass and have the days on it to use, you will not need to get a local train pass.

Regardless of your plan, a few days in the CT will certainly decompress you. You don’t say where you’re going afterward, but we put the CT at the END of our vacation that started in Rome and continued to Florence. After that, it was great for unwinding. If you're going from California, the CT will remind you geographically area of the PCH around Bug Sur.

I will be in Florence in October and have a day trip planned for CT. I was told we would be brought to the first city and picked up at the last. I have never been there before and any information on what we should do and see would be very helpful. Also, a ferry was mentioned for about 8 Euros, can you tell me how that works and where we need to pick that up? The trip is scheduled to be a 9 hour tour including the time to and from Florence. Will we have enough time to see it all?

As others have stated, many Florence to CT trains will change in La Spezia. However, my husband and I just returned from Italy yesterday and we transferred trains in Sarzana. This town is about 30 miles from La Spezia and about ½ of our train options transferred there instead of La Spezia.

I’d use the Trenitalia site to explore your options. Enjoy your time in the CT, it was one of our favorite stops on our trip!

Rachelle, your trip to Riomaggiore from Florence will take just under 3.0hrs. From Monterosso to Florence, it's just over 3.0hrs. Thus, you have 6.0hrs of travel time. If you only have 9hrs for your tour, including travel time, that leaves you 3.0hrs to see the CT. I submit that that is not enough time to do very much. Forget the ferry as it is not fast but it is very very scenic.

If you want a plan for a better one-day trip to the CT from Florence that you do on your own, message me. I have a much better plan that permits you to see much more plus have lunch.

Recently returned from Italy. We trained from Florence to La Spezia Centrale on a regional train with no changes. Then we had to get on one of the milk run trains to Vernazza where we were staying. It was all very easy. If I can be of further help, please let me know.

From the Milan airport - Malpensa - you will have to get the Central Station in Milan for trains to CT.

By train: from the airport to the Cadorna station, then by metro (lots of stairs with your luggage) to the Central Station.

By bus: from the airport directly to the Central Station.

In rush hour, the bus may be pretty slow. When traffic is light, the bus is about 10-15 minutes longer, but you really save time and hassles because you arrive at the "right" train station. From about midnight to 5 am or so, there is no train or bus service.