from Monterosso to Milan

Where did you get that? There are 5 direct (no train change required) trains from Monterosso to Milano starting at 05:19am and ending at 14:55. Plus there are 6 more that require changing trains somewhere. Go to Trenitalia.com and do a search.

cathy, I'm not entirely clear on the details of your trip. If you only have one day in Monterosso, where will you be prior to that? Where are you getting your train information? I checked and didn't see a Monterosso-Milano departure at 14:06. The trips from Monterosso to Milano Centrale are as short as 2H:55M, so you could be back in Milan far earlier than 21:35 (depending on which train you use). Some additional information would really help. Cheers!

Thank you! That is very helpful! We are on a bit of a whirlwind tour having arrived from Venice in the early pm of June 7...just the rest of the pm and an overnight stay for a short tour of Monterosso, then we'll train up through the rest of the Cinque Terre to Genova and on up to Milan...a bit of a 'scouting tour' for this time. Flying out of Milan to two weeks in the Dordogne area of France, then a week in Paris, too! Anyway, we now feel better knowing we can just putz along enjoying the scenery in a hop on hop off kind of schedule, should the spirit move us!
Again, appreciate the info...guess I was on an incorrect site or something...who knows?

Cathy, Thanks for the clarification, but a few additional comments..... Unless you have an overwhelming desire to see Genova, I'd suggest skipping it and spending your time touring the five towns of the Cinque Terre. Even with just one day, you should be able to get to all of them via hiking or the local trains. Regarding your plans for a carefree style of touring to "just putz along enjoying the scenery in a hop on hop off kind of schedule, should the spirit move us", you'll need to be VERY CAREFUL in how you do that. If the train you're using is a Freccia, InterCity or other "premium" train, reservations are compulsory and are specific to a particular train and departure time. You CAN'T just "hop on hop off" those trains or you'll get nicked with a hefty fine which will be collected on the spot! Fines for the premium trains start at ~€60 PP and increase from there. You MUST use ONLY the train specified on your ticket (ie: ES 9762). If the train you're using is a Regionale,, reservations are not a concern and you can take any train, but you MUST validate your tickets prior to boarding on the day of travel or again the same hefty fines! Once validated, tickets have a time limit (depending on the route distance) and then expire so you would likely have to buy separate tickets for each segment of your trip and then validate prior to boarding each train. Using the spontaneous "hop on hop off" approach on Italian trains comes with a few "caveats". Cheers!

The later point about regional ticket validity is important. Regional tickets used to be valid for 6h, which made it easy to hop-on/off along a route. Now, you have to buy separate tickets if you are exceeding the validity of each of them (usually but not always 120 minutes).

Great to have such clarification! Thanks again! We have reservations for the other legs of our trip (Milan to Varenna in Lake Como...Varenna to Venice...Venice to Monterosso)...so I shall make sure we enjoy the Cinque Terre for a few hours, then we will buzz right up to Milan...a few hours there, then out to the airport hotel where we will stay prior to our morning flight over to Toulouse. Though we were aware of the validating needed on the train tickets I am glad to have the importance of this step reiterated! Good to hear we can walk and hike and to just avoid Genova, as well! This helps immensely!
Cheers!