My wife and I want to travel from Vernazza to Rome on Monday, June 10th, 2024. We understand that first, we must take the train to La Spezia and then to Rome. We can already find tickets from La Spezia to Rome, but from Vernazza to La Spezia, nothing is available yet. We read on a thread from 2023 that "European train schedules are revised each year on the second Saturdays of June and December". Does this mean that we won't be able to know the Vernazza-La Spezia train schedule until Saturday, June 8th? Could anyone tell us if this information is correct or when we can expect to be able to buy the tickets?... Thank you in advance for the information!
Posted by
Green Bay
21226 posts
These are regional tickets and can be bought right up until departure. You will probably see the schedule in late May or first week of June. if you want to see the schedule, just look at the same day of the week now. It probably will not change.
Posted by
Wengen
2543 posts
Note that there is no need to buy train tickets that far in advance. You can safely wait till the moment you can book the whole trip, and then just book Vernazza - Rome.
You will probably be able to do that in May.
Posted by
Boston
1804 posts
There's a special Levanto - La Spezia train which serves all the villages called the Cinque Terre Express and it runs about every 20 minutes or less in season, in addition to regular trains. The train is also included as part of the Cinque Terre Treno (& Hiking) Card if you'll have one. Have a look here: https://www.trenitalia.com/en/services/travel-around-5-terre.html
Posted by
Sonoma County, California
131 posts
But you might want to book the longer train now: In my experience (though I am no expert) the longer train prices do vary a bit and you can get a cheaper price in advance. You could buy your La Spezia to Rome tickets now and just get a local train to La Spezia later. (Ie, buy that ticket much closer to the date).
And you can get an idea of the schedules now. Look at the trenitalia website for tickets from La Spezia to Rome now to get an idea of the times and the prices. I just looked for that day, and tickets now for June 10 range from 19.90 euros to 60 euros.
Also, there seems to be a gap in times. Here are some times from La Spezia Centrale to Roma Termini (on June 10):
8:16 am
8:32 am
1:16 pm
4:16 pm
6:16 pm
(there are a couple of other trains that take 2 hours longer, I'm not including them).
So the main thing seems to be this: do you want to get an early train (8:32 am) or do you want to wait until 1:16 pm?
I'm guessing you should get your ticket from La Spezia to Rome now. Then on the day you can get your local ticket.
Tony
Posted by
OP
5 posts
This information has been very helpful! Thank you so much!
Posted by
Los Angeles
1207 posts
Also, there seems to be a gap in times.
The gap in times is most likely due to the fact that you have the high speed train filter on. If you remove it you will see the direct Intercity that leaves La Spezia at 10:13 and arrives at Termini at 14:33; there is also a routing through Pisa and Firenze that leaves La Spezia at 11:23 and arrives Termini 15:25 but with 2 changes.
So it's a matter of deciding how early you want to leave, how many connections to deal with, and what time you'd like to arrive. Plus you have to get from your lodging in Vernazza to the train station and catch the train to La Spezia. As for the local CT train, there's no need to buy that ticket in advance - you can wait until you get to the station in Vernazza - and that train should run every 20 minutes or so, per the information above.
Posted by
146 posts
Whatever time you decide to leave La Spezia, plan on being there at least 30 minutes in advance. The train from Vernazza to La Spezia is often late. Don’t cut it close