train or drive- monterosso to venice

Go to the Trenitalia site. Yes, you can book trains on your own. The trains going from Monterosso to Venice are going via Florence anyways (most likely). It is going to take you 5-6 hrs no matter what. They leave all hours, not just 6AM.

As far as the car, you can't drive in either Cinque Terre or Venice, so why keep paying for it?

Drive to Florence and take train to Venice

I'll vote for the train.

Use the Trenitalia website for figuring your trains. If you were willing to leave earlier, there's a 9:06 train leaving Monterosso with a change in Pisa and another in Florence that will get you to Venezia s. Lucia in 5 hours and 14 minutes

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

Monterosso 9:06 > Pisa Centrale 10:19, Intercity 1553
Pisa Centrale 10:32> Firenze S.M. Novella 11:32. Regionale Veloce 3114
Firenze S.M. Novella 12:15 > Venezia s. Lucia 14:20, Frecciarossa 1000 9416

Otherwise, there's a 12:55 from Monterosso that will get you there with just one change in 5 hours, 45 minutes:

Monterosso 12:55 > Milano Centrale, 15:50, Intercity 1570
Milano Centrale 16:15 > Venezia S. Lucia, 18:40, Frecciarossa 1000 9743

There are other train combos but I eliminated those with 3 or more changes and/or took longer.

Editing to add: you could also do a Jazz suggested, train to La Spezia, car to Florence and catch a train there. What with picking up and dropping off a car, having it checked for damage, signing off and whatnot, I'm not sure how much time it would save but maybe time isn't the issue?

Thanks so much.. I found the correct train site that you mentioned and I'm guessing we will book the 9:15 or so train with the connections/Pisa/Florence to avoid the hassle of returning the car in Florence. Can you explain what validating the ticket means?

Validating means Time-stamping open tickets (i.e. regional trains tickets locally purchased) into a small punching machine.

The ticket is then valid for a specified period of time on all regionale trains running the route you paid for.

Regionale tickets purchased online do not need to be time-stamped: the clock starts with the departure of the booked train.

tdsrn,

You'll probably encounter two styles of validating machines - https://goo.gl/images/WRd6Af . They're usually located close to the tracks. Be sure to validate on the day of travel, as the tickets have a time limit once they've been validated.

I'd suggest using the train from Monterosso to Venice. Dropping a car in Florence is risky unless you know where the ZTL cameras are located. There are two main rail routes, either through Milan or through Florence. The travel times are close, but I usually pick the Florence route. Going by train will be a faster and much more pleasant journey. Trains from Milan or Florence to Venice will be high speed versions which travel at up to 300 km/h, much faster than a car!

Be sure to specify Venezia Santa Lucia as your destination, as that's right on the Grand Canal so easy to get to your hotel using a Vaporetto. As I recall, there's a ticket booth to the left as you descend the stairs from the station. The boat ticket will also have to be validated but they use electronic tickets which are different than the rail versions. You'll need to touch your ticket against the reader before boarding the boat. If you get a green light, you're good to go. You may find this helpful - https://europeforvisitors.com/venice/articles/venice-vaporetto-fares.htm

One other question - as you'll be driving in Italy, I assume you're aware that each driver will require the compulsory International Driver's Permit, which is used in conjunction with your home DL. You'll have to be vigilant to avoid ZTL areas, as those exist in many towns in Italy.