no train connections for La Spezia (for CT) on Rick Steves, Eurail or Trenitalia websites

If you are looking for dates in May this is way too early.

Thanks. Is that the only issue|? Can I assume at some date in the future I will see schedules for the trip I listed? Can you answer whether the trips are part of Eurail? I appreciate your input.

Michael

You don't need a Eurail Pass and hopefully you've not already bought it. Trains in Italy are dirt cheap especially if bought in advance.

You will need to put in the name of one of the five towns - Cinque Terre is a geographic name for five different towns, so the train stations are in each of the towns (at least 4 out of 5).

Rail passes for Italy are seldom cost-effective, since the trains are very inexpensive.

Michael,

I can assure you that there ARE many rail solutions on that route. To begin with, forget using Eurail for researching any rail trips. For trips in Italy, the best two websites are Trenitalia or bahn.de.

As someone else mentioned, it's far too early for schedules to be posted for May 2016. Rail schedules are loaded twice yearly and I believe the next update will be in December. You can get a good idea on availability on that route by entering a date within the next week, on the same day-of-the-week that you'll be travelling. Schedules may change slightly next year, but probably not much.

On that route you'll have either one or two changes (most likely including one at La Spezia Centrale), and will use a combination of Regionale, Freccia and InterCity trains, depending on which departure you choose. When you buy tickets, you'll need to specify which of the five towns you want as the destination.

As the others have mentioned, Rail passes are rarely a cost effective method for travel in Italy as trains are relatively inexpensive (especially the Regionale trains). One other point to note is that Rail passes do NOT include the seat reservation fees which are compulsory on the high speed trains. Pass holders must pay separately out-of-pocket for those, and the reservations are specific to train, date and departure time so can only be used on one specific train. Anyone caught without valid reservations for the train they're riding on will face hefty fines, which will be collected on the spot (the same applies for those travelling on Regionale trains with unvalidated tickets).

On the trip from La Spezia to Roma Termini, I'd suggest using one of the direct departures, of which there are several each day. Those provide a travel time of about 3H:45M and no changes. It's a very pleasant trip.

Ken has covered all the bases but to your question about Florence, yes, you want to choose S.M. Novella (Santa Maria Novella) on the Trenitalia website. That's the city's central train station.

And to echo the others, skip the Eurail pass for all the reasons they've given. :O)

To learn more about rail passes, you can't beat the discussion from The Man In Seat 61. Read it thoroughly before you even consider a pass, particularly the section "Common Railpass Mistakes - Italy": http://tinyurl.com/bkw4u6c

In addition to Italian schedules not being loaded that far ahead, for regional trains (which includes those from La Spezia to the towns in the Cinque Terre), prices are only listed for the next 7 days. Just look at something within the next week to get an idea - the prices won't go up that much, and while the exact times can change, the general frequency won't (if a train is every two hours, it won't become every twenty minutes in the next year, and vice versa).

A friend of mine lives in Rome and now is working a temporary daily job in Florence. An high speed monthly pass is cheaper than a monthly room rental in Florence so she is spending 5 days a week commuting on high speed trains (not a much longer commute time , in any case, than living in Rome and working on the opposite side of the city). This is one of the very few cases in which a rail pass makes sense in Italy. But a tourist will never have such a dense travel schedule.

A high speed monthly pass for citizens and residents sold by an actual train company is completely different from a Eurail pass which is sold by middleman RailEurope at rip off prices. Also, Eurail does not operate any trains.

I too will be in Italy next May/June. I did some research using Google last week and found the following information:

1. Frecce trains (high-speed trains that run between Italy's major cities) can usually be bought within four months of your travel date.

2. Intercity and Intercity plus train tickets can only be bought within four months of your travel date.

3. The private Italo Rail Line that serves some of the major cities can be bought a little farther in advance, sometimes up to five months ahead.

I hope this helps.
Rich

"The private Italo Rail Line that serves some of the major cities can be bought a little farther in advance, sometimes up to five months ahead."

One point to clarify is the Italo Treno does not operate on the route that Michael will be travelling, so Trenitalia is the only option.

Thanks for the helpful information, Ken. I was also trying to book train tickets for April on Trenitalia and panicked a little when none seemed to be available. :)