Getting to Cinque Terre from Florence

The best place to look for trains in Italy is on Trenitalia.com. Venezia Mestre to La Spezia Centrale is how they're listed. The times it takes to get and the transfers vary a little. The shortest trips are about 4:30 hrs. or 4:45 hrs.
You might have to get a reservation on your Venice to Florence leg.

You may be having problems because the summer schedule is not loaded yet.

Just put in the same day of the week for this next week to see.

If you want to go directly from Venice-CT you can do this with one change in Florence.

Venezia S. Lucia-La Spezia...total time is 4H59m

Venezia (9:25)-Firenze SMN (11:30). Firenze SMN (11:53)-La Spezia (14:24)

merry,

I'm not entirely clear on your plans. Are you travelling to the Cinque Terre from Florence or Venice? Are you planning to stay in the C.T. or just visit as a day trip? It would be easier to provide suggestions with a bit more information.

We are traveling to Cinque Terre from Venice.

Like Gerri said. The Regionale schedules are not published yet beyond June 13. Most of the trains between Florence and the CT are Regionales. They should not change a whole lot after June 13, so plan like you were going next week to get an idea of schedules and prices. If you want to book now in order to get Economy or Super Economy tickets, book from Venice SL to Florence SMN now on a train that shows a convenient connection from Florence to your Cinque Terra destination. Regionale tickets are always the same price regardless of incoming or outgoing connector trains.

Merry,

Just a thought...

Does your itinerary include visiting Florence & Rome?

If so, it's more efficient to travel from Venice to Florence, then Florence to CT, then CT to Rome.

Enjoy your trip!

Edit: Which village in CT will you be staying in? If you're staying in Monterosso, you may want to travel via Milan on a direct Intercity train (only if you choose to travel from Venice to CT)

merry,

Thanks for the additional information. A few thoughts.....

The points mentioned by Priscilla are worth considering if you'll also be visiting Florence and Rome. It's a more efficient route to travel Venice > Florence > CT > Rome as it minimizes travel times.

The trip from Venice to the Cinque Terre is fairly straight forward, but it will take at least five hours. There are numerous solutions shown on the Trenitalia website, and this is one of the quickest (using Monterosso as the destination).....

• Train from Venezia Santa Lucia to Monterosso (depart 09:25, arrive 14:52, two changes at Firenze SM Novella and Pisa Centrale). The first segment is via FrecciaArgento which has compulsory reservations and these will be provided with the ticket - you can save some money by purchasing the ticket online, provided there are still some discounted tickets available. Note that the ticket is specific to train, date and departure time and can only be used on the one train listed on the ticket.
• The segment from Florence to Pisa Centrale is via Regionale so DON'T forget to validate the ticket prior to boarding the train on the day of travel, or you'll risk a hefty fine which will be collected on the spot. Buy this ticket when in Italy, either at a Kiosk or staffed ticket window.
• The segment from Pisa to Monterosso is via InterCity train, and again you can save money by purchasing online. The situation with these is the same as with the Freccia train described above in terms of reservations, etc.

The shortest travel times between Venice and the Cinque Terre seem to route via Florence, and that's probably the one I'd use. You can see all the solutions on the Trenitalia website.

We'll be taking this same trip in July, going from Florence to Vernazza. I'm curious about gerri's post. He mentions a direct train from Florence to La Spezia, but I'm not able to find that anywhere. If I search on TrenItalia it comes up with either 1 or 2 transfers. How can I find this train?

Thanks!

thanks everyone for all the great info! I noticed that you can get a very high speed train that takes 37 min - i think it was between bologna and florence - would that be an advisable way to cut down the trip times?

You don't need to request a schedule to Florence or to La Spezia, if that is not your destination. Request from Venezia S. Lucia station to Monterosso, or Vernazza, or whichever town is your final destination. Schedule results will show you the fastest travel times and fewest connections, and often you must choose between those two benefits, as well as which options are closest to the time that you want to depart.

DB may be easier to read or to print schedules (through June 13), though they don't sell tickets. How to Look Up Train Schedules and Routes Online gives you the DB train schedule link and tips for using it.

merry,

"I noticed that you can get a very high speed train that takes 37 min - i think it was between bologna and florence - would that be an advisable way to cut down the trip times?"

In a word, No. Why add the extra step of going through Bologna? Total waste of time, IMHO. The trip from Venice to Florence is also via high speed Freccia train, so will also be very quick. The route that I posted above is about the quickest way to get from Florence to the C.T.

jeremy,

There are a few direct trains between Firenze SMN and La Spezia Centrale each day (mostly Regionale). Rather than piece together bits & pieces of rail journeys, as Laura mentioned it's best to research these using your actual departure and destination points. The websites will provide the optimum solutions for those points.

Thanks for all the great info!!