Seeing Cinque Terre if only have 1 day

I would advise saving the CT for another trip. You'll spend more time in the car and trying to find a parking space than you will seeing the sights. It doesn't deserve a "drive by" in my opinion - focus instead on the area you'll be staying in and come back another time.

Kent, Thanks for the reply. We appreciate your opinion. If we go, we figure it will take about 2 hrs. by car to La Spezia from Volterra, arriving by 11am. Then leave from La Spezia by 6 or 7pm for the return trip. This would give us 7 hrs. (incl. train to a couple of the CT towns).

You're probably right, yet we still may give it a shot knowing we'll have to start out early. We'll be in Volterra the 1st wk in May. CL, Tks for the reply.

We on this board see traveler's who frequently want long one-day round trips to Venice, Rome and the CT. It seems worth it all to get there, walk around a bit, have lunch, get back on the train and say we saw it on our trip to Italy.

It will be a lengthy 1-day. I would suggest driving to Pisa and the taking the train roundtrip from there. Parking is severely limited in the CT. As mentioned above, the 5 towns are not linked by any road (maybe up high on the road from La Spezia to Livornia. They are linked only by the train, sea and by foot for the adventureous. Take the train from Pisa to Riomaggiore and walk the coastal trail to Manarola (35 minutes). The trail is short and flat. Very scenic. Take the train to Monterosso. Walk around. Take the train to Vernazza. Walk around. Have lunch somewhere along the way. Take an evening train back to Pisa and retrrieve your car.