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Planing trip to Italy

Need advice:
1. Florence for- 3 days
2. Lizzano 2days we are going there for WWII history. My Dad served with 10th Mt. On Mt. Belvedere.

3. Cinque terra ? Where do we stay?- 3 days
4. Lake Como- 3 days
5. Venice- 2 days
Does this sound doable by train? How do you get to Lizzano from Florence? I've heard train to Prato then bus. Not sure names of lines. Then how do we get to Cinque terra? We have all our hotels booked except Cinque terra.

Posted by
1394 posts

we did Florence, lake Como (varenna) and Venice early in july by train. excellent. I can give you the specific housing we used, if you are interested. Milan is the hub, you change trains there, we did not leave the station, but know you could add an afternoon in Milan if you wanted......

Posted by
5 posts

Did you like the hotels you stayed at? Did you buy train tickets as you went? Thanks for the advice !, Jody

Posted by
1394 posts

we had bought tickets ahead of time....this gives you reserved seats. re luggage, 2 of us had roller bags, the other two had large back packs.....we were able to get our luggage on and off trains with minimal drama. restrooms on the train were clean and well equipped. we got food from the market and bottled drinks at the train station and picnicked as we went.

old historic area hotel in Florence, lovely apt in varenna, suburban modern hotel in venice.....nice cross section, great places all.

Posted by
1315 posts

When I read your plan, I read "nights" when you write "days". You MUST include the time for transportation. Check the time tables on Trenitalia.com and buy your trips beforehand.

I think Cinque Terre to Lake Como is one full day.

I think Lake Como to Venice is one full day.

But you will get to know Milano Central Station quite well :-)

That leaves you two days at Lake Como and 1 day in Venice. I think that is very short time in Venice. We had four nights last week and left plenty to see but this was our sixth trip to Venice and we are definitely going back.

Posted by
5 posts

Thanks so much, for your reply! It confirms what someone else told us so we changed our plans. We are not going to Lake Como at all. So it gives us more time in Cinque Terre and Venice. We will take an overnight train from Cinque Terra to Venice in a sleeper car. Does that sound better?

Posted by
15681 posts

Jody, I don't think there is such a thing as a sleeper car from the CT to Venice but I'll admit that I haven't looked because there are going to be train changes however you do this journey.

Just taking a random look at trains from Vernazza to Venezia S Lucia or Venezia Mestre (depending on where you end up staying) the shortest journeys take a little over 5 hours with at least two train changes.

Plug your dates, preferred time of departure, and departure/arrival stations into the Trenitalia website to see what's involved.

http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=4ddd1a035296f310VgnVCM1000005817f90aRCRD

As far as hotels, I'll also recommend La Spiaggia, near on the water in Monterosso, and an easy walk from the train station. Request a sea-view room. Also, there appears to be a few trains to Venice from here which only involve one change in Milan.

No, we don't always purchase advance tickets; only for trips that involve the fastest, most expensive trains. We also do not purchase first-class tickets unless there's a very good deal on them as we've found there's very little difference between first and second class.

Posted by
1912 posts

In Vernazza we loved staying at Camere Giuliano. It is a hike up the hill, lots of steps but the view can not be beat! Giuliano is a quite a character and the place is clean and very, very nice. Read about his place on Tripadvisor.

Posted by
6 posts

You can get the train from La Spezia. We got a pass from the La Spezia train station to travel unlimited between those 5 towns. It was well worth it. There is also parking at La Spezia train station if I remember it correctly.

When you are in Florence, try to make a side trip to Siena and Tuscan country side. It is absolutely beautiful.

Posted by
16893 posts

There's more than one Lizzano in Italy, so it takes some searching. It looks like you could take a train via Bologna to Poretta Terme train/bus station, then weekday bus 776 to Lizzano in Belvedere. There may also be buses from Pistoia. A rental car sounds simpler.