My husband and I are staying in Florence and are looking at a day trip by train to Cinque Terre but my attention has been pulled away to look at Portovenere and La Spezia.
Would love recommendations and suggestions.
We are not beach people but do love historic places, beautiful scenery, good food and local culture
Thank you from Canada
Never cared for La Spezia to tell you the truth, in spite having driven through it dozens of times. It’s an industrial port city which hosts the second largest Italian Navy base (after Taranto).
Portovenere is however very quaint, and definitely worth a visit.
The 5 villages of the Cinque Terre, are more easily reached by train (for Portovenere you need a city bus from La Spezia), but you could potentially visit both Portovenere and at least one of the 5 Terre villages on the same day trip, if you start early and don’t linger too long in either place. Obviously if you are interested in a hike through the paths at the Cinque Terre you may not have enough time, except for maybe La Via Dell’Amore path, between Riomaggiore and Manarola, which is very short. There are no beaches at the Cinque Terre except for the village of Monterosso.
Not ever being in this area of Tuscany, I would seriously appreciate your advice on how to go about planning a day trip from Florence to Portoventere and as you mentioned perhaps one of the villages in Cinque Terre. The best route logistically and where to go first etc
I really like Cinque Terre and Portovenere, but personally I would not try to daytrip to either of them from Florence by train. I believe it is abut 2 1/2 hours of travel each way, and you will be arriving there at the busiest parts of the day with all the other folks from cruise ships etc. There are so many other lovely places closer to Florence that I think would be more enjoyable.
Having said that, if you do go ahead, I would leave Florence as early as possible. It started getting busy around 1000 when we were there last. You could potentially fit in Portovenere if you look at catching a boat from one of the towns as it does go there as well
Thank you so much for your advice. You say there are other beautiful spots closer to Florence to see. Can you recommend a few please. Thank you
Neither Portovenere nor the Cinque Terre are in Tuscany. They are both in another region: Liguria.
In any case trying to do a village at the Cinque Terre then Porto Venere on the same day would be extremely rushed. The travel time to La Spezia is almost 3 hours, unless you take the very early FrecciaArgento fast train from the Campo di Marte station, in which case it would be only 1h45m. Then you need to wait for a train to the village of the CT of your choice. Riomaggiore is the closest, about 10 min from La Spezia. To go to Portovenere from the La Spezia station you could take the bus #11/P, for about 35 min or take a taxi for about 20some minutes. If you try to see both places you have very little time for both, and even visiting only one would make it a very busy and tiring day. I don’t know why every North American on this forum has to go to the Cinque Terre or Montepulciano. What gave people that addiction? The gold and blu color guide?
Train timetable below:
www.trenitalia.com
Enter from FIRENZE (TUTTE LE STAZIONI), which means Florence (all stations)
to YOUR DESTINATION STATION (La Spezia, or Riomaggiore, or whatever)
I'm quite familiar with that area, and have done a day trip from Florence. Given the transportation time, my suggestion would be to focus on the five villages of the Cinque Terre as that will be easier to accomplish in the time you have. The towns have an interesting history and are somewhat unique.
if you want to spend a short time in each of the towns, you could start in Riomaggiore and work your way north using the frequent local trains. Finish the day with a fine meal in one of the nice restaurants in Monterosso, which is the largest of the five towns, and take the train back to Florence from there. If you decide to do something like that, be sure to check the train times on the website that was suggested in the previous reply.
You could take a stroll on the famous Via dell' Amore, which is a trail that runs from Riomaggiore to Manarola. I believe reservations are required. There's probably information on that in the Rick Steves Italy guidebook.
If you like sweet dessert wines, check out the local Sciacchetrà in the Cinque Terre.
Portovenere is nice but as mentioned, it can only be reached by bus from La Spezia or the local ferries, which may or may not be running depending on the weather. I found it less interesting than the Cinque Terre.
If you haven't used the trains in Italy before, be sure to do some research on the "rules", as there are some potentially expensive caveats to be aware of.
Hello briargatebeagles1, and welcome to the forum,
You don't mention a month but I have to agree with most people here that it is not the best day trip from Florence. Not only because of the logistics but because everyone will be doing the same thing. I travelled from Lucca to Pietrasanta which shares a short section of the train line with this trip and the train was packed in September with people heading to CT.
I stayed in PV for several days a few years ago and my pictures will make you want to go but I found it just generally overrun but tour groups because the CT ferry stops there and the tiny town is just packed with daytrippers. If you want to go to the area I found the south coast of the bay San Terezno, Lerici, Tellaro and even Sarzana over the hill much more interesting. The local train may stop in Sarzana just before La Spezia and the other towns will need to connected by bus which is why I think it's all Italian tourists at the seaside and not Americans.
If you are not beach people there are many better IMHO day trips from Florence:
Top recommendation is always Siena - easily accessible by bus and train. Bus drops you more in town so if you take the train consider a taxi to minimize the walking to and from the train station. A good cathedral, a city to explore and one of Italy's great piazzas.
Arezzo is another ancient town (Etruscan roots) and while not as scenic as Siena it is also less touristy and is easily accessible by train. An interesting blend of modern Italy on the flat by the train station blending slowly into the ancient flowing uphill.
Bologna is 30 minutes by fast train and while another large city very different than Florence. Long colonnaded streets, interesting archaeological museum, and great markets as it considered to the food center of Italy.
Lucca is a small medieval town surrounded by walkable walls and is flat. Some interesting churches, music centric activities and some shopping. There are a couple of wanderable palazzos in Lucca - most notably Museo Nazionale di Palazzo Mansi which is interesting but not a blockbuster. Reachable by train - easy but about 1:15 on the slow train. Can be paired with Pisa for a long day.
Verona is 1:30 on the fast train and an outlier but the center is completely flat, pedestrian, great shopping district, Roman gates. an intact Roman arena and theater (still in use) archaeological museum. Although the museum is sprawling above the theater and requires a fair amount of up and down. It has a very strolling, cafe culture vibe. Take a bus or a taxi 8 minutes to Piazza Bra from the station.
Have a great trip,
=Tod
Thank you and I did forget to mention we will be in Florence from May 26 until June 1st where we will then be off to Venice.
I will digest all that has been suggested and do appreciate all the advice and tips
