Pre-purchase train tickets from Roma Termni to La Spezia Centrale

Hi Tyler. There are several earlier trains than that, not sure where you are looking. Use trenitalia.com to see all the schedules, prices, and buy tix. To buy tix, register as a user, make up any Italy address, it is not used for anything. If you are willing to lock in an exact date and time, yes, buy at least the Rome to La Spezia part online now, you will get a big discount. You get the tix online / via email.

When you are on the website booking a train and entering in your departure location make sure you change the Time to say '00.' I think it automatically populates to a later time which cuts off all early train times available. At least it did for me. I had the same problem you did at first when looking for an early train but when changed to 00 it gives ALL train times. They generally leave as early at 6:30 AM or so.

I think http://www.italiarail.com/ is more user friendly (and you don't have to enter a random address.) There is a train that leaves as early as 7am with only 1 connection.

You can leave Roma Termini at 06:57, connect at La Spezia Centrale, and arrive at Vernazza at 11:30. If you book now at trenitalia.com, you can get either a Super Economy fare of €19.00 or an Economy fare of €29.00 for the Roma-La Spezia high-speed train. You will be sent an e-mail with a PNR code which you print yourself and show to the conductor. The fare for the regional train from La Spezia Centrale to Vernazza is €2.40. Normally you cannot buy regional train tickets more than seven days in advance; but if the ticket is linked with a leg that requires a reservation (like Roma-La Spezia), you can include it.

The Trenitalia website clock defaults to the hour that you enter your travel information, so you need to change the departure time to whenever you want to leave.

Hmmm, I've tried editing it the departure time several times, but for some reason the date that I am leaving (Monday June 16th); the earliest departure I can still see is 11:57am. I see on some of the earlier days in June they offer earlier departure time, but not on June 16th. Do you think that is because it is too far out and they have no added those early departure times for that date yet?

Hi Tyler. Yes, no wonder you were confused! Yes, the full schedule is not loaded yet for dates June 15 and after. They will be 99% the same as the earlier days, so use that as your guide, then keep checking back for when the full schedule is displayed / purchasable for your date. Enjoy your trip!