My husband and I will travel to Italy in mid September and here is our plan:
2 days in Florence -> 2 days in Cinque Terre -> take train to Venice (transit in Florence)
Any suggestions will help, thanks!
Is it hard to carry large luggage in small Cinque Terre town? we will
stay in Monterosso
That depends on where you're staying in Monterosso. Our hotel was an easy walk from the train station so bag size wouldn't have been an issue. That said, large, heavy bags that are difficult to handle by yourself could be an issue in many other places. For instance, lots of accommodations and some train stations don't have lifts, and stairs are everywhere in Italy. If you think you could have a problem in the CT, then you might want to think about downsizing your bags and lightening the load?
Q1: It partially depends on where you're staying in Monterosso. The streets are relatively flat and roller-bag friendly, but there's a set of stairs from the train platform to street level and you may or may not have stairs to your hotel. Villa Steno is one that has a lot of stairs, which is also why it has such great views.
Q2: If you decide to leave large luggage at SMN, you'll need to allow sufficient time to pick it up as you pass through Florence. Some connections are only 15 minutes, which isn't enough time. If you don't find a long enough connection, consider buying 2 separate tickets, one from Monterosso to Florence and the other from Florence to Venice. Cost should be very similar to buying a single trip. It also allows for the option to use an Italo train on the Florence to Venice leg.
Especially if you're using trains, you need to reconsider taking "large luggage." Each person should be able to get it up on the train and then onto a rack or to over the seat storage.
And in Venice, if you can't access your hotel from the water, you will need to pull luggage up and over bridges which are made up of steps. And many train stations have stairs, no elevators or escalators.
Our hotel in Monterosso, Hotel Porto Roca, sent a taxi to pick up us up at the parking lot where we left our car.
Arriving in Monterosso you will have to descend one flight of steps at the train station. Some hotels are an easy walk from there, and some have elevators.
Thank you all for the response!
We will carry two luggage with us, one check-in size and one carry-on size
It looks like we'd better leave the check-in size luggage at Florence SMN and only carry the small suitcase with us to Monterosso (we will stay at Affittacamere Irene, it doesn't look far from the train station but not sure about stairs)
Since we will stop by Pisa on our way to Monterosso, only carrying a carry-on suitcase should make our life much easier...
When we travel from Monterros->Venice, I will allow about 40 mins for us to pick up our luggage at Florence, does this sound as enough time?
Thanks!
sabrina,
Fourty minutes should be adequate to retrieve your luggage from the Deposito Bagagli at Firenze SMN, as long as there's not a huge queue.
Affitacamera Irene is in the "old town", part way up Via Roma. It's an easy walk (especially with just carry-on luggage), but there may be Taxis at the station if you'd rather do that. There are only a few Taxis in Monterosso, and they can sometimes get busy when trains arrive, so you might have to wait a few minutes.
I'm sure the proprietors of the Affitacamere will send directions, but if not just turn left when you exit the station. Walk along the main street to the tunnel and through the tunnel. When you exit the tunnel, turn left and head up Via Roma and turn right at about the Ciak Restaurant into the parallel side street.
Thanks Ken for giving me so many details, very helpful!
Hey Sabrina!
I noticed in another thread you were planning to rent a car to drive to Tuscany. Is that still the plan or have you changed your mind and are planning to take public transportation? Have you been to Europe before?
If you are planning to rent a car in Rome just to drive to Florence, I suggest you rethink your plan. I think you'd be better off taking the train and then take a tour of the Tuscan countryside. To me, a car makes sense only if you plan to stay in an agriturismo and stay more than a couple of days.
Have you arranged all your accommodations? Mid-September is only a few weeks away. I guess you can just show up, but availability may be a problem.
How long is your entire trip? If you are moving around as much as you indicate, I suggest you seriously rethink your luggage plans. We did take one checked bag each on our trip to Tuscany, but we spent the entire time in one location. When we went to Scotland for 10 days, we were moving every other night. We only took two carryon bags each and did fine. My wife spent a week in Tanzania in the Spring. She took a checked bag full of medical supplies, but all her personal items were in two carryon bags. We are going to London and Paris in the Fall and we will only take carryon luggage. The trip is much more pleasurable without having to haul heavy bags all over creation.
Well, we travel with a checked bag and carryon apiece too and do just fine. The checked bags are not enormous, though, and I pack mine as lightly as possible as I know I'll have to manage it myself. Darn thing is only really heavy at the end of the trip when it's full of museum/attraction books!
Thing is, if a bag size/weight is going to be of concern in CT, it's likely to be a concern in a lot of other places too so...
Hi DougMac,
Yeah both of us have been to UK.
Our entire trip is 2 weeks, we are landing in Rome and go all the way up north:
Rome (4 days) -> Tuscany (2) -> Flornece(2) -> CT(2) -> Venice(2) -> Milan(2)
We have booked all accommodations and will stay at least 2 nights in each place.
I know this is a long trip but there is always so many places to see :(, not to mention that I have been willing to go to Italy for years and finally both my husband and I have a 2 weeks vacation
We plan to bring 2 luggage with us, one carry-on and one checked-in size so each can handle one when transferring trains.
Think I need to control myself not to buying too many souvenirs in Rome ...
Hi Kathy,
Yes we plan the same: one carry-on and one checked in bag.
In Rome and Milan we will use taxi to transport between airport/train station to hotel, so what i'm worrying about is CT and Venice.
Our hotel at Venice is 5 mins walk from Vaperetto station and 1 bridge to cross...
Sabrina, I always take bags like you're taking if my trip is 2 weeks or 6 or 9 weeks. My check-in bag is 21"x14"x9" and I don't let it weigh any more than 25 lbs because it might weigh 31 lbs on the way home! My under-seat bag is 18"x13"x6.5". The combination of the two bags is more than enough space for a 2 week trip. (The check-in bag is the Rick Steves' Ravenna rolling bag and the underseat bag is the Appenzell.) We usually stay at the Albergo Marina in Monterosso and I can easily manage both bags by myself going up hills and stairs--the elevator was too crowded!
