Levanto or La Spezia Easier for Parking at/or near Train Station

Levanto is easier as it's smaller, but your question begets questions. Where are you coming from? If it's from the south, Levanto is a good deal further than La Spezia - both on the autostrada and traveling the curvy local road from the autostrada to the coast. In that case, you might as well drive all the way to Santa Margherita as it's only 20 minutes further than getting to the Levanto rail station.

Mike, thank you so much for responding! Your advice to drive directly to SML makes sense -- especially since we are coming from Lucca. My original reason for thinking that we needed to park elsewhere and "train in" is that I assumed SML would have ZTLs and limited parking like many coastal places such as Cinque Terra and Lerici. But I guess the fact that we will be there more off season (Mid-May) should make things easier. Mike, do you know if there are ZTL's in SML? I've tried googling that question and surprisingly can not get a straight answer.

I've driven the major streets on several visits and don't remember encountering a ZTL as such. There are pedestrian only streets and streets with arcaded sidewalks so I guess there's not a big car/pedestrian conflict. We picked a parking facility off Google maps and followed the directions. This facility is not too far out: https://g.page/PARKSANTA?share

Thanks, Mike you have been so helpful. I tend to get a little anxious about driving/parking in Italy and your guidance is much appreciated. I'm now feeling confident about driving from Lucca to SML directly. BIG thanks for the google link you provided, as well!