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Milan to Cinque Terre?

Posted by on

Hi!
My husband and I (30’s) will be landing in Milan at 4:25 from Chicago May 10,2019. We want to know if we should go directly to CT and spend two nights there or spend 1 night in milan, wake up early and train to CT leaving us with just 1 night in CT. We have been to Milan before so we aren’t interested in the sights, just wondering if it will be too crazy of a trip to do in 1 day after a long flight. Or is it worth it for 2 nights in CT?

Also, we are going from CT to two nights in the French Riviera, probably Nice or Antibes. The train routes have been confusing since we are switching countries. Has anyone done this before that can share how they did it?

Thanks!

Posted by
32198 posts

jether,

Definitely go directly to the Cinque Terre, rather than wasting a night in Milan! I assume your landing time is in the afternoon? You'll need to get used to using 24-hour time as that's all that's used on the trains. Which of the five towns are you planning to stay in?

On the current schedules, there's a direct train departing Milano Centrale at 18:05, arriving Monterosso at 21:05. You may be able to connect with that one? If not, there's another departure at 18:25 with one change at Genova Brignole.

Travel from the Cinque Terre to Nice is not difficult, but will take some time. You could (for example) use a departure from Monterosso at 10:55, arriving Nice Ville at 15:57 (time 5H:02M, one change at Genova Piazza Principe).

I've found that the Deutsche Bahn (German Rail) website is one of the easiest to use for researching trips all over Europe. However the schedules will be revised in December, so you won't be able to research trips in May quite yet. The new schedules probably won't change much.

Posted by
8889 posts

from CT to two nights in the French Riviera, probably Nice or Antibes. The train routes have been confusing since we are switching countries.

I am not sure what is confusing here. I went to https://www.trainline.eu/ (which sells both Italian and French tickets), entered Monterosso ➜ Nice and found lots of trains through the day.
The trick was I did a search for a date in November this year. Train times past 9th December are not yet published, you won't be able to buy tickets for this trip for many months.
And you need to specify which of the 5 towns you are starting from.

Posted by
7808 posts

I went to Nice from Cinque Terre. It is at least two trains. Not complicated except that it takes about 5-6 hours:
Monterosso to Genova and then Genova to Nice The train schedule is available about 90 days in advance

Posted by
485 posts

That's a 3-hour train ride, with at least one train change. If your flight and train times can coordinate, awesome, I'd definitely, get the big chunks of travel over with in one shot.

Posted by
20017 posts

There are direct IC trains from Milano Centrale to Monterosso at 6:05 pm and 9:10 pm. They are on the schedule now with a base fare of 57 EUR for 2. There is also an IC train at 7:05 pm that connects in Sestri Levante to a Regionale going to the Cinque Terre towns. That connection is not showing up yet and you probably will not see it until December 8 or thereabouts.

Are you landing at Malpensa or Linate? Do you connect in the Schengen zone before you arrive? If so, you will get through quicker as you will already have cleared Schengen immigration.

If you land at Malpensa, it is a 55 minute train ride from the airport to Centrale on trains that go every half hour, so the 6:05 train is iffy. If you land at Linate, it is either a bus or taxi to Centrale.

Posted by
3 posts

Thanks so much for your help! We land at LIN at 16:25 ;) and will be staying in Monterosso. I think we are going to get all the traveling out in one day and head straight to CT! From all the reviews it seems like the train station wont be too far from where we are staying so we can crash as soon as we get there.

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