Train from Florence to Cinque Terre

Elle, I am currently traveling in Italy and just took this trip with two of my friends a few days ago. We took the train from Florence S.M. to Monteresso, which is where the beach is. We had to change in Pisa Central and La Spezia on the way there. On the way back, we only had to change in Sarzana. I think the number of changes you have to make depends on the time your ticket is for. All the connections should be bundled if you put your starting point and destination in, but the ticket won't say where to make the change, so be sure to look at what the screen on the ticket machine says. Also, for the smaller stations, they don't have electronic boards for departures, but have sheets of paper posted with times and stops/changes you may need to take. We all bought base tickets, so I'm not sure about Super Economy and how those tickets work. Hope this helps!

Elle, you will make one purchase and will receive one ticket for each train that you will be on. In Italy, they don't put the entire journey on one ticket. Next, your trip from Florence to the CT will most likely be on Regionale trains. These trains do not have seat assignments as do the faster trains in Italy. A ticket on the Regionale train is an "open" ticket good for 60 days. You won't see the departure date, train number or seat assisnments on it. Just the departure station, the arrival station and the class (1st or 2nd). You can actually get on any train making that run during the 60-day period shown on the ticket. Before boarding the train, you need to validate the ticket in the little yellow box in the train station. Here's a LINK to a picture of how you validate. Big hint. Don't validate all of your tickets at the same time. Once you validate, they are only good for 4 hours. Validate at each station before boarding. If you are caught on a Regionale train without a validated ticket, its a 50Euro fine on the spot.

Elle, We just got back from Italy and trained from Florence to La Spezia and never had to transfer. We were on the train by 0800 and got off for 3 hours in Pisa, got back on the train, same ticket, and got to L S. Very easy and simple but it is a local train and you cannot make reservations on it.

Steven did good with his Regionale ticket. But, be cautious. When you validate the Regionale ticket, it's only good for 6 hours. The trip must be completed within the 6 hours. It's 2.5hrs from Florence to La Spezia and Steven got off in Pisa for 3hrs. All of this was under 6.0hrs so it worked quite well. Another way to do this is to choose a Regionale run from Florence to La Spezia Centrale with a train change at Pisa. You then have two tickets. Validate the first and travel to Pisa. Hold on to the second ticket until you have visited the leaning tower and other sites and you are ready to proceed to La Spezia Centrale. You just validate the second ticket at Pisa Centrale before boarding. No problems. By the way, Pisa Centrale has a great left luggage storage facility in the station.