Train from Florence to Cinque Terre questions

You can't buy a ticket to CT. That is a collection of towns, each with its own train station. You need to specify the town. But thats not necessary in this case, since the trains first go to La Spezia anyway. There's a direct train to La Spezia at 7:36 from Firenze Campo di Marte station. Later trains will require a train change and/or will take longer. At La Spezia central station, buy the Cinque Terre Train Card. It's essentially a day pass for all the regional trains running from La Spezia to all of the CT towns, and back. There are frequent trains from La Spezia to Pisa. The one at 1715 gets into Pisa at 1825, giving you a half hour to get to your car rental agency. The Trenitalia website has all the trains listed, and whether they are a Freccia or regional trains. Make sure you use the Italian place names.

The only train I've listed that you might want to buy in advance is the one from Florence to La Spezia, since it's a Freccia, with assigned seats. The rest can can be purchased at the station in La Spezia.

ETA: I wrote this at 1 in the morning, so I'm a bit fuzzy. Hopefully someone else will either confirm or correct me.

Yesssss thank you so much! That’s exactly what I needed to know and clears up a lot! Is that through the Trenitalia or Italia Rail?

Trying to figure this out. You are going in the morning from Florence to the Cinque Terre, then you are picking up a car in Pisa at 7 pm. What do you plan to do with your luggage? Are you going back to your hotel in Florence? Moving on to somewhere else? If that is the case, you will ne to go to Pisa First and stor your luggage at Pisa Centrale station. No where else has luggage storage, and you certainly don't plan to drag it around with you to all the CT villages.

That Freccia train from Firenze Campo di Marte stops at Pisa Centrale where you can store luggage. Then proceed to the Cinque Terre villages by regional trains, bought at the stations.

Edit - There is a regional train from Firenze S.M.N at 7:00 to Pisa Centrale you can buy at the station.
Italia Rail is not a train company, it is a travel agent based in the USA that specializes in selling Trenitalia tickets. Trenitalia actually operates the trains, and you can buy tickets from them.

Ahh that’s good to know! We thought we had heard La Spezia would have storage, good to know we’ll need to store in Pisa!!

We check out of Florence 11/21, then go to Cinque Terre for the day, pick up the car at 7 in Pisa then drive to our Air Bnb in San Gimignano for 3 nights before we go to Venice for our last couple nights

Here is the Cinque Terre card cjean had referenced. Note, there is a family card.

http://www.cinqueterre.eu.com/en/cinque-terre-card

I stand corrected. There is luggage storage at La Spezia Centrale.
http://www.depositobagaglipisa.it/servizi/deposito-bagagli-stazione-la-spezia-cle

If you plan to use only Regional (R) or Regional Veloce (RV) trains from your trips from Florence SMN to La Spezia Centrale and back to Pisa Centrale, you can buy all your regional train tickets at Florence SMN. Such tickets are good on any R or RV train during the date on the ticket. Be sure to only validate the tickets for the segment on which you're about to depart. The 4 hour validity window can expire if you validate them too early. Also note that you can buy your regional train tickets a day or so in advance, but make sure they're for the correct date. Ticket kiosks default to the current date and the date must be changed for advance purchases.

Before you get too deep in your plans for CT, you need to check conditions. I just checked trail conditions and all trails are closed. Also check out this recent RS trip report. I'm thinking inclement weather and the end of the season has a lot of the businesses closed.

Trying to go to CT, especially with what sounds like pretty vague plans and understanding of the region, sounds like a setup for disappointment. I don't know how much total time you have in Italy, but unless you have weeks and can spare wasting a day, I'd shoot for something more likely to work. Visiting Lucca would be an option.

Finally, a check of the 10 day weather forecast for Vernazza shows next Wednesday to be cold and rainy.

give this site a study for train info, I found it to be very helpful for train travel to the CT area.. https://www.seat61.com/Italy-trains.htm

Thank you all for the helpful information and links!

Doug, we’ve never been to Italy before and this is our first time planning a trip to Europe on our own. We went to Ireland with my boyfriend’s parents but we drove the whole time and pretty much everything is English, so that was easy. We know which towns we want to go to once we get there, but we don’t utilize trains in Indiana, which is why I’m on this forum asking questions, for help and guidance, not to be made to feel bad. Surely you didn’t know it all your first trip? It’s a day trip for us, a handful of my friends have done day trips there and said it’s doable. Worst case scenario if rails are still closed (we were able to buy tickets though), we’ll just get our car and head to San Gimignano which was our original plan, and it’ll be a learning an experience for next time. Thank you for the info and links!

I’m not trying to make you feel bad. I guess we go about planning differently. You are asking questions about things I would have worked out a couple of months in advance, not less than a week before needing it. I think my approach is a holdover from my work. I travel extensively for my job and I have to handle all arrangements personally. If I’m not on a trip, I’m making plans for the next one!

I’m guessing your departure is imminent, if you haven’t already left. Be aware that CT got hit hard with the recent super storm. All trails are closed until further notice. It could be months. The only road to one town was washed out and it is only accessible by boat.

San Gimignano is charming and would be an excellent alternative for a day trip from Florence. I hope you have a great trip!

Worst case scenario if rails are still closed (we were able to buy
tickets though), we’ll just get our car and head to San Gimignano

Unless this is a typo, you may have misread this bit of Doug's post?

I just checked trail conditions and all trails are closed

Yes they are, for cleanup and safety checks after a heavy recent storm. While I've no idea when some or all may be open again, this would only affect you if you intended to hike. If you only want to walk within at the 3 villages mentioned, no problem as trains are running as usual. You could keep your plan B, however, if the weather is really nasty and unfavorable for exploring the region. He didn't raise the concern about cold/rain to "make you feel bad"; it's really not a fun place to be in foul weather, and especially not during the season when a fair amount of restaurants and businesses are closed. :O)

Editing to add: the road which was washed out is not in the CT; it's the one into Portofino, which is outside the CT region. The CT saw minimal damage.

https://cinqueterreinsider.com/2018/11/03/octobers-super-storm-aftermath-in-cinque-terre-and-liguria/

Yes, thank you! I realized before your comment I was just reading through it again, I thought he meant the rails and not hiking trails. My knees kinda suck if I push too much so we’re not planning to hike, or go to the town with the steep steps. Mostly just exploring the towns, taking in the views and eating. We still want to do CT for a day trip if the weather is okay, we drive to San Gimignano that night and are staying 3 nights there :)

I know his bit about weather wasn’t meant to make me feel bad, it was just the mention of vague plans and not understanding of the region, cause of course I don’t, I’ve never been! And it’s true, this should’ve been done earlier, and I’ve expressed that to my boyfriend but at this point it’ll have to be a learning experience. The trains were what we were lost on since we don’t have experience using them

I had seen a articles of Italy getting hit hard with floods and that 11 regions were in a state of emergency and that 30+ people died and had been having a hard time finding more info! It sounds like it’s been crazy there and I can only cross my fingers we’ll be lucky...here’s one article, italy flooding

Recent bad weather in Italy: yep, there was a fair amount of discussion going on at the time it was happening. Mother Nature seems thankfully to be over her hissyfit for the time being but made a mess here and there, and lost lives are always tragic events.

here’s one article, italy flooding

First step to plan a nice trip: avoid sources saying that Venice has been "completely flooded" as if it was something unusual or dangerous. It's called a "tide" in the real world.
The Po river flooded near Turin and fields built by the Romans to be flooded went underwater. I doubt anyone, except the farmers that rent those fields from the Po River Authority, noticed it.

so we’re not planning to hike, or go to the town with the steep steps.

Although you likely don't have time to include it, the "town with the steep steps" you're referencing is probably Corniglia, and the "steps" likely the long Lardarina stairway between the town and rail station. Just in case anyone else is using this thread for their own planning, you not have to climb its 370 steps to get up the hill. There is a little bus (small fee) which runs between station and town, and it's roughly timed for train arrivals/departures. The schedule will be posted at the station and at the bus stop in Corniglia.

We took the bus up and the stairs down but aching knees/bad hips can ride both ways. :O)

Corniglia is tiny (!!) but I liked that one very much. It has two very nice little churches, some lovely, narrow passageways and postage-stamp piazzetta, and a terrific view from its perch high above the sea. Probably largely shut up during winter but photo ops would be good on any sunny day.

Yea it had just mentioned 11 regions in a state of emergency and such, made it sound massive!

We just finished our day trip to Cinque Terre and all went well! Once we got the CT rail pass and saw how it worked, it was easy to navigate the towns we wanted to see! We got lucky with our warmest day here so far, it did rain a little bit but I don’t feel like it hindered anything for us! Thank you all for the fast responses, it definitely made CT easier for us to figure out!

We just finished our day trip to Cinque Terre and all went well!

Glad to hear it worked out for you! Was it crowded or calm?

Very glad you had a nice day and enjoyed the trip! Hope you got some lovely pictures! :O)

Thank you, Doug and Kathy! Definitely snagged some great pictures! It’s been so long since I’ve used message boards I can’t see how to quote people for replies lol

I think it was pretty calm, Doug! Riomaggiore was pretty dead, Vernazza and Manarola both had more people but still didn’t feel super busy. We missed the first train over to Manarola from Riomaggiore and were maybe going to walk over instead of waiting an hour but the trails are still down. Honestly though, I think the trains are a perfect way to maximize your time there if you just have the day! My calves are KILLING me from all the different flights of stairs we did in Florence, so I was a-okay not doing any extra hikes

We missed the first train over to Manarola from Riomaggiore and were
maybe going to walk over instead of waiting an hour but the trails are
still down.

Yes, what I'd call the main pedestrian route between those two towns - which is really a paved walkway versus a "trail" - has been closed for some years now due to falling rock. I don't think it's expected to be open for the 2019 season.