Train from Cinque Terre (La Spezia) to Florence

If you are traveling after June 13, Trenitalia has not completed the Regionale train schedules yet. For planning purposes, just look at the same day of the week you plan to travel within the next 7 days and you will get the schedule and prices currently. They usually do not change too much but keep checking back every week or so. Trenitalia is always late getting the schedules finalized. I imagine there is a lot of politics involved with setting the schedule.

The problem could be that you are looking at schedules too far in advance. Most of the trains going between the Cinque Terre and Florence are regional or InterCity trains and may not show up more than a month ahead. Use the Italian rail website - www.trenitalia.com and choose the same day of the week you will be traveling next week. For instance, if you are planning on going to Florence on a Thursday in July, look at a Thursday next week to get an idea of the schedules (they rarely change much).

Using a random day next week, the schedule shows that there are 3 or 4 direct trains per day between La Spezia and Florence taking about 2.5 hours. There are quite a few others involving an additional change in Pisa. Depending on which Cinque Terre village you are staying in, you can get to Florence with only 1 train change (depending on the time of day you depart). There's no need to buy these tickets ahead. You can just buy them a day or two ahead at the train station. If you do want to buy ahead, Trenitalia sells most regional train tickets a week before.

i just checked trenit and from 5 am on there are trains running from la spezia to pisa every thirty minutes or so and running from pisa to firenze at about the same interval. check the train schedule for today or tomorrow and you should be able to see them

Regional train service lose money and have to be funded by single regions (Liguria up to La Spezia, Tuscany down from La Spezia). The railway administration needs to negotiate long term agreements with different regions (often in the form of tenders), then synchronize timetables for different regions and make periodical adjustments. This is why long range timetables get published in advance and regional timetables at the last minute.

Once you are there, check the Partenza (departure) listings on the big displays. Even close to the time, I had trouble getting good info from Trenitalia, com.

mhoffman,

That trip is actually very easy, so no need for "angst". As the others have mentioned, travel solutions that involve Regionale trains will not be indicated more than a week in advance. One other point to mention is that if you're staying in one of the five towns (rather than La Spezia), research your rail trip from there (unless of course you're staying in La Spezia).

Here's one method you could use.....

• Check the Trenitalia website for the next week using the day-of-the-week and departure time you want to use. Make a printout or note the details of that trip. For example, if you're staying in Vernazza there's a departure at 09:28 that arrives at Firenze SMN at 12:00 (time 2H:32M, 2 changes at La Spezia and Pisa Centrale). There are numerous other departures, but many of them take at least half an hour longer. The one suggested is one of the shortest trips on that route.
• A day prior to travel, go to the local station in whatever C.T. town you're staying in and purchase tickets for that trip. Take the printout with you to show to the ticket agent if necessary (you could use a yellow highlighter to indicate which trains you want). The current fare is listed at €20.90 PP for that route.
• The agent will issue all tickets necessary for the trip. If you use the one suggested above, the first and last segments will be via Regionale so DON'T forget to validate prior to boarding the train on the day of travel. The middle segment has compulsory reservations, which will be provided with your ticket.

That particular route is relatively short and I wouldn't bother pre-purchasing tickets on line, especially as two of the segments will be via Regionale. Just buy the tickets when in the C.T.

Thanks Rich, Ken and others for your helpful responses. No more angst. It makes sense now as we aren't travelling until July - which explains why routes aren't posted yet. After checking current schedules, it is clear that there are numerous train options. Thanks again. No more angst. :)