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Northwest Italy by Train doable?

Posted by (Washington, DC) on

Hello fellow travelers!

My husband and I are in the midst of planning a trip through the French Riviera and NW Italy. We are keeping a rental car for our french riviera portion but, in order to save on cost, considering just using the train through NW Italy - we're hoping to travel from Nice to the Cinque Terre region and on to Lucca.

My question is - how doable/easy is training through that region of Italy? I have researched the train system and it seems to be fairly well connected. Also the area of Cinque Terre & Lucca are both not car-friendly which made us feel that it would be a waste to pay for one since we'll be spending the majority of our time in Italy there. But I wanted to get opinions from folks who have traveled or live(d) there.

Your help & any advice/tips is much appreciated!!

Posted by
63 posts

Very easy. We went from Milan to the Cinque Terra to Venice all by train and it was not a problem. It was actually easier than having a car as parking and driving between the villages in the CT would have been a pain and you would miss much of the charm. We picked up our car after we were done in Venice.

Posted by
1277 posts

Hi nasheer. I agree with poster above, the train works well and is preferable to car. Enjoy your trip! .

Posted by
15 posts

Thanks for the quick and helpful responses! This makes our travel plans a lot easier and less expensive =)

Posted by
32402 posts

As previously mentioned, that trip is very easy by train and avoids the hassles of driving in Italy (compulsory IDP, ZTL tickets, etc.). The rail trips will involve one or more changes, so if you haven't done that before you may want to do some research on the topic. Have you travelled by train in Italy before? There are some potentially expensive "caveats" to be aware of.

Which of the five Cinque Terre towns are you planning to stay in?

Posted by
11848 posts

We traveled Genoa to Nice last year. Nice trip! I recommend a stop in Genoa if you have time in your itinerary. we only spent a night to break up our trip from Rome to Nice, but really enjoyed out half day there.

Posted by
15 posts

Hi Ken,

Thanks for the helpful response! We're planning to stay in monterosso and I did research the loco service in Italy and it looked like we could go from nice, change in genoa and arrive in Monterosso for about 50-60 euros total (for the both of us).

What are the expensive caveats that you mentioned? We've both used the train service once but very briefly so we're not too familiar with it. Thanks!

Posted by
32402 posts

Monterosso - good choice! As you found on the rail websites, that trip will take about 5H:45M with 2 or 3 changes, depending on which train you use. The schedules may change slightly after 10 June, but probably not much. One solution you could consider is a departure from Nice Ville at 09:21, arriving Monterosso at 15:05 (time 5H:38M, 2 changes in Ventimiglia and Genova Piazza Principe). Some of the other solutions go to La Spezia Centrale and then backtrack.

I didn't check the prices for the French segment, but they won't be expensive as it's a Regional train. The segment from Ventimiglia to Monterosso is currently priced as low as €18.40 PP.

Are you familiar with changing trains? I'll send you a PM with further details on the caveats.

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