Train from Florence to Cinque Terre

Not really, the best you can hope for is a single connection in La Spezia. Takes 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

i agree; I did that one way last summer with a change in Pisa.
plug your search in to see for yourself;

remember to select the the specific town along the Cinque Terre that you want to end up in from Firenze

https://www.raileurope.com/european-trains/trenitalia/how-to-book.html?gclid=CjwKEAiA_9nFBRCsurz7y_Px8xoSJAAUqvKCBkRqk8bF7vGs1n1XpP0LjEuDg51UZtsoFeBf4WpFyhoCIorw_wcB

Agreeing with the above: no direct trains to any of the 5 villages from Florence.

But use the Italian national rail website to check out schedules.

http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en

The very fastest train to the region is one that leaves Firenze Campo di Marte station at 7:38 AM and gets to La Spezia Centrale at 9:11 (1 hour/33 minutes.) There, you change to another train to Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza and/or Monterosso.

Going back to Florence, the fastest train leaves La Spezia Centrale at 20:03 and arrives at Firenze Campo di Marte at 21:40.

I agree, use the national railway site, not RailEurope.

There is also a wonderful free app called "Rain Planner" which we used all over Italy for our month stay. Once it is on your phone you do not need to be connected to wifi to use it!

There is one oddball direct train departure from Florence to the Cinque Terre towns on Sundays and holidays at 7:45 a.m., starting from April 16 through at least the next schedule change in early June (and probably later). It makes a lot of stops and takes 2h 43m to Monterosso, so is not faster than the best of the one-connection schedules.

Alecica,

Yes, it's doable as a day trip. I know that as I've done it. I'd suggest going fairly early and coming back in the evening, so that you have as much time as possible to look around. I'd start in Riomaggiore and end in with a fine hot meal in Monterosso before returning to Florence. Use the local trains between towns.

Even if you do get a direct train in one direction, you'll likely have to use trains with at least one change on the way back. The easier method is simply to choose what time you want to go and return, and just deal with the changes (they're not that difficult).

In that situation, I'd probably use a train departing Firenze S.M. Novella at 07:08, arriving Riomaggiore at 09:32 (time 2H:24M, two changes at Firenze Campo di Marte and La Spezia Centrale). That will allow you some time to look around Riomaggiore for awhile before heading to Manarola for lunch. For the return trip from Monterosso, there are departures at 19:07 and 21:07, arriving back at Firenze SMN at 21:32 and 23:50 respectively (one change at Pisa Centrale). I used the latter train, which is the last one of the day.