Stopover on train trip between Venice and Cinque Terre

These are scattered locations, but maybe Parma, Cortona, Siena, Volterra?

How many nights do you plan to spend at the stop over location?

If planning the whole journey on the same day I wouldn't stop at any town, because you'd have very little time for anything.

Otherwise, if at least one night, the train stops, besides at Bologna, are only at Florence, Pisa, La Spezia, all of which is where you will likely change trains.

Between Pisa and La Spezia the regional train makes multiple stops. Viareggio, a seaside resort town, might be good for some bike time along the promenade.

Don't toss out Lucca. It really is not much out of the way. One connection in Florence to get to Lucca, then from Lucca to Pisa (or Viareggio), La Spezia and on to the CT.

Roberto da Firenze ⚜ Thank you. I had not considered that the train would not stop except in the major towns. Is that only true for the express trains? We plan on taking the regional trains. I'll have to look at the schedules.

We do plan to stay one night wherever we plan to stop over.

I suggest stopping in Florence. It is really beautiful. Make sure you see the statue of David.

Hello, lpage53, and welcome to the forum,

It seems like you have a few things going on here - you want ride local trains and then hop off in a small town and explore it but you're not even going to have a full day to explore the town you choose. In general the small towns off the main train lines don't go onto to serve the major lines so heading to a small town means backtracking back to main line and train changes to get back to travelling. This is a wonderfully romantic idea but I would generally recommend knowing your destination when you buy tickets and having a room secured - even in October - in most places before you land there. Even if rooms are available you'll end up wasting an hour or more finding one versus spending your brief time in town exploring. Most towns look alike from the train station so the view from the station is no way to judge a town.

Lucca is an obvious solution that provides much of what you're looking for so it's a pretty good choice. Choosing a random weekday in October you can reach Lucca using in 4:19 using local and Intercity trains from Venice @9:10 for ~23e a person booking early and second class on the intercity or a max price of ~48e for 1st class booked day of. Or in 4:49 @9:40 fully regionale for ~27e a person.
You can move onto La Spezia @8:30 the next day in 1:38 for ~14e on a regionale and Intercity. Or if you want to explore Lucca some more you can go @12:42 in 1:38 on two regionale trains for ~10e. So Lucca is more like 2/3s of the way there versus halfway.

On paper places like Mantua/Mantova or Cremona seem like they sort of fit the bill but getting back to a train line will add hours to your onward journey. Modena could work depending on what you are looking for. Modena is a larger city now but was traditionally a small agricultural town so the centro still feels smaller and has plenty to explore for two part days but I don't think bike riding would necessarily be one of those things.
Modena is ~3:00 from Venice for 17e to 24e a person and then about the same onward to La Spezia changing in Parma for 17e so it is pretty much halfway in terms of time and cost.

Fast trains have assigned, comfortable seats and things like WiFi and power along with being faster so there is a reason people pay more for these thing as well as the additional time savings. Booked ahead that can purchased much cheaper than the "base" fare if you are willing to trade flexibility for price. Intercity are direct trains that have classes and assigned seats that were the business class of their day but are now greatly overshadowed by the fast trains. There are modest cost savings to buying earlier and choosing second class but they are not significantly more than local regionale trains.

My $.02, have a great trip,
=Tod

@hiredman, you've given much more than 2cents worth of advice! Thank you so much for all the detail. After reading replies here and doing more research, we've pared down our expectations and agreed to rent a car for a day. We'll be taking a high-speed train from Venice to Florence (2hrs15min) and either staying the night in Florence or Lucca - to be decided during our next videoconference with our daughter with whom we'll be traveling - then renting a car for a day to drive into the hills of Tuscany. Then back to Florence or Lucca to hop on a train to LaSpezia. If we leave early in the morning in the rental car, we can have at least 8 hours to tour the countryside; more if I can convince my spouse we'll be fine to arrive at our final destination in Cinque Terre after dark. Each of the places we've reserved are within a 10 - 20 minute walk from the relevant train station and the car rental place.

Luckily, our timing is such that we'll be renting a car on a Sunday so we wouldn't need to worry about the ZTL zones in Florence. We'll have to come back another time to explore the actual city of Florence.

The only car rental agencies that will be open on Sunday are at airports
(Maybe an agency open on Sunday til noon at Florence train station-not sure)

ZTL zones are active on Sundays AFAIK

If you want to explore the Tuscan hilltowns
then Lucca is really not the best location-too far north and west

You wouldn’t need to drop car same place you picked it up
Drop it in LaSpezia-no sense backtracking

@ChristineH. I appreciate your input. At Sixt.com, it shows that Florence Central (Santa Maria Novella) station is open on Sundays from 8-8. After reading someone else's experience of booking in another city and then getting a confirmation that the pickup was elsewhere, I was leary, so I called Sixt directly and they confirmed that the Central station office existed and that it was indeed open on Sunday. I guess I'll make a reservation and then read the fine print as to where I need to pick it up, then cancel if I was provided with misinformation.

I also checked current information about the ZTL zones in Florence and what I'm reading is that they are not active in Florence on Sunday but are active in the historic hill country towns. If I discover that information is incorrect, I will adhere rigidly to the path provided by the rental car to get out of the city without entering any of the zones.

Interesting idea about dropping off the rental car at a different location. Thank you. I'll have to look at the rate. In the US, it is often prohibitively more expensive to have a different dropoff point.

We always book our cars thru AutoEurope.com- a US based consolidator with excellent customer service.
Check to see what they offer
We always book with Full Insurance/No Deductible = peace of mind.

All drivers will need an IDP (International Driving Permit) along with their current US DL- this is required by law. Get at your local AAA before leaving the states.

We have never paid a drop off fee in Italy and from other reports IF you do it is minimal. Driving back to drop car in Florence will only had unnecessary travel time to your day. However the Florence station office is probably your only option on a Sunday so dropping in La Spezia won't work unless they allow after hours drop off.
Another drop off option is Pisa-either the airport or Centrale (if open)

There are multiple threads here with driving instructions fro exiting/entering Florence and avoiding ZTLs, bus lanes etc. Be sure you understand how to do this- a ZTL/traffic violation arriving later in your mailbox blows your whole budget saving trip.

You won't be driving IN to any of the hilltowns- you will be parking in lots outside the walls.
Make sure your luggage is well hidden and take valuables with you when you park
You will need a designated driver if you plan to wine taste-alcohol limits are much lower in Italy

We decided not to rent from Sixt. There were too many reports on Yelp, for my comfort, of the company not providing the car that was charged and then upselling, and also charging for damage months after a car rental return even when the customer had video evidence that there was no damage upon return. I also found comments that it was very difficult to locate the office and the return site.

Honestly your plan just seems like far too much hassle and expense for a few hours driving around
I’d leave the Tuscan countryside for another trip when you can give it the time it deserves

@ChristineH. We thought we had a really good and easy plan in place. Arrive by train in the morning to Florence. Take the rest of the day and evening to explore a part of the city. In the morning, from our apartment, walk 5-10 minutes to the car rental place. Have 8-9 hours to explore the countryside. Return the rental car and hop on a train to La Spezia. Didn't seem like much of a hassle to us. But now we're worried about car rental practices. We will check out AutoEurope. We also got a quote from TuscanybyCar.

But we are reconsidering one portion of our trip. Maybe we don't go to Venice (after time in the Dolomites) and instead spend those days in the Florence area. We're flying in and out of Milan. Decisions, decisions.

You're right, lpage53, that may have been a whole nickels worth. I tend to be an (over)planner and I'm pretty familiar with this area especially.

If you are looking for the cypress lined lanes and rolling hills Tuscany of film and photo then you will need to venture south of Florence, but this rural area is not well served by mass transit that fits the tourist schedule. If you wanted to keep to trains I would recommend Siena, Arezzo and then Certaldo for an afternoon of exploring and an overnight before moving on. These are presented in order of interest - Siena really deserves a whole day at least - but unfortunately they are the reverse order for train access onwards to La Spezia. Certaldo has train access in under 3 hours that doesn't backtrack to Florence.

But if you want the full experience you will probably need to rent a car and you've gotten a lot of good advice on that.

Even in October expect the train to La Spezia to be crowded - especially coming from Florence - since it is a popular day trip.

Rural Tuscany is as beautiful as advertised, have a great trip,
=Tod

Tod, thank you for this additional information. I'm reading elsewhere that just getting to Siena - if we make stops along the way for photos and have a lunch - will take up to 6 hours so going further south is not realistic, given our timeline. To see the iconic Tuscany landscape, I think we need to plan on coming back and devoting more time to exploration.

Thank you EVERYONE for your advice.

I would gently suggest you might reconsider Bologna - we visited there last November, and did not find it to be touristy at all. In fact, we liked it so much that we are going back again this November and staying for 10 days. By comparison, I found Florence to be very touristy in the center. While Bologna doesn't have the big art draws like Florence and Rome, I think Bologna is a much more beautiful city than Florence (I know that that's a controversial opinion). The food is fantastic and the historic center is a beautiful place to just wander around under the porticos and enjoy the vibe of the city. I especially enjoyed the modern art museum as a break from the many M&Cs that are the main stage of Italian art. If your plans allow you to stay for a few days, it's very centrally located to visit other smaller places by train like Parma, Modena, and Ravenna (which has spectacular Byzantine mosaic across multiple sites).

Thank you for your input, Alexis. The mosaics and good food are definitely of interest to me. I'll put this to my traveling companions.