La Spezia to Florence Direct Train- July

I can't seem to find the 1.5 hr train.

Is a direct train really that necessary? The trains with one connection are faster and more frequent - even with 45+ minutes to change trains in Pisa. The price difference looks to average €1 - 10 per ticket between advance & same day tickets - the 10:06 with connection is €19 in July €20 for tomorrow

13:35
La Spezia Centrale
TO
16:07
Firenze Santa Maria Novella
2h 32m
Direct

10:06
La Spezia Centrale
TO
12:00
Firenze Santa Maria Novella
1h 54m
1 Connection

There is a schedule change due on June 11, and because it involves negotiations between government and train operators, Regionale trains, of which there are many between La Spezia and Florence, are not scheduled yet after that date. Just look at the schedule for this week and you will see all the trains. Unlikely to be any big changes. By June 11, they should show up on the schedule. Regionale trains don't have reservations, just buy a ticket, validate the ticket in the stamping machine, get on board and hopefully you'll find seats.

I suppose a direct train isn't incredibly necessary, but we are only in Florence for a day and a half (possibly 2 days if we can get their early in the day- just not 7 am early). We're flying to our next destination from the Florence airport so I was trying to capitalize on time.

I don't mind one connection, have you ever been to the Pisa train station? Is 10-15 minutes enough time for a connection? I've even seen a few with 8 min connection, which makes me a bit nervous. We've missed trains before and that makes me wary now.

There are only the two high speed Freccia trains you mentioned that cover that distance in 1.5 hours. They go to Firenze Campo di Marte.
There are a few Regional trains throughout the day that require no changes, however they take 2.5 hours because they make several stops.
If you want to minimize your travel time, you need to take the Freccia, if you can.

I was hoping maybe we'd get lucky and someone would say that the schedule in summer has much more freccia trains! Thanks for your help all. Perhaps after June 11 we'll get better options. Having to get from Cinque Terre to La Spezia adds more time so trying to make it to the station by 7 (on vacation, nonetheless) seems stressful.

Check the schedule for trains from your Cinque Terre village to La Spezia before you choose the train to Florence.

Is your hotel near the Campo di Marti station? If not you will have the extra time of changing stations in Florence - so it really seems to be 6 of 1/2 dozen of the other. Pisa is an easy station to change trains.

Crazy - the only way to see the ES direct train is to put the exact station in - I usually pick Florence or Florence SMN - learned something new.

Campo di Marte is not that far from the city center. Depending on where your hotel is, a taxi might get you there even faster than from SMN.

To see the trains that go to Campo Di Marte, all you have to do is choose FIRENZE (TUTTE LE STAZIONI), or all stations, as your destination, rather than using S.M.Novella only.

KS,

There are several direct trains from La Spezia Centrale to Firenze (various stations), including departures at 07:44, 13:35,15:40 & 17:40. Travel time ranges from 1H:35M to 2H:32M, and different classes of train are used on that route. I used an arbitrary date of 9 June to check, and I doubt the new schedules after that will change much. Could you clarify if the most important factor for you is travel time or number of changes? Which of the five Cinque Terre towns are you staying in?

In that situation, I'd probably use a departure from La Spezia Centrale at 10:06, arriving Firenze SMN at 12:00 (time 1H:54M, one change at Pisa Centrale). That would allow you to still have a nice breakfast at your C.T. hotel, and a leisurely trip down to La Spezia (only takes a few minutes). That gets you to Florence at a good time of day to check into your hotel, and hopefully by that time your room has been serviced and you can check in straight away. After check in, have a relaxing lunch and a brief walkabout to familiarize yourself with Florence. That still leaves lots of time to get to your dinner reservation.

That's a relatively short route so you likely won't save much with advance purchase tickets, especially as some of the trains you'll be using are Regionale as there's no discount for those. I'd suggest checking the Trenitalia schedules and then buying your tickets the day prior to travel so you don't have to deal with that when you're loaded down with luggage. One important point to mention is that if using locally purchased Regionale tickets, you MUST validate these prior to boarding the train on the day of travel or risk hefty fines, which will be collected on the spot! If one of the trains you'll be using is an Intercity or Freccia, these have compulsory seat reservations and are specific to train, date and departure time, so the tickets for those don't have to be validated.