train ticket 10/20/2019, Varenna to Manarola, need advice

jules,

It's likely that you won't be seeing tickets for that route due to the fact there's a schedule change in early September.

The Varenna-Esino to Milan Centrale route is the easy part, since that's a Regionale train so you don't need to buy those tickets in advance. You can easily buy your tickets to Varenna and return in Milan, but of course DON'T forget to validate them prior to boarding the train on the day of travel or you'll risk hefty fines.

The train to Manarola will probably involve an Intercity train to Levanto or Monterosso, and savings may be possible with advance purchase tickets. You may have to wait until close to the schedule change in September to see those listed. I'd probably wait until September to buy those tickets when they become available, as you should still be able to find Super Economy tickets.

The easiest rail solution on 20 Oct. appears to be a departure from Milano Centrale at 12:10, arriving Manarola at 15:23 (time 3H:13M, one change in Levanto). The Trenitalia website indicates those tickets are not currently available.

Searching just from Milan to Levanto, I see some notes on those InterCity trains that say "solution temporarily unavailable," which is the more likely explanation. These trains rarely sell out, and especially not two months ahead. I'd try again in a couple of weeks.

The 20th is a Sunday and the schedule is reduced on Sunday so most likely those routes are not available on a Sunday. I did see a route through Milan for 5.5 hours on the 20th. Since several route appear to be regional train there is no advantage to pre-purchasing those tickets because a regional never sells out. No seat -- you stand till one becomes available. Delay your travel till Mondays. I checked Monday and those routes are available on that day. Or you live with the limited schedule on Sunday.

Thanks Laura and Ken. Maybe this is on the top of your head, its in the archives of mine! Which one of these tickets is the one I save money by purchasing in advance? Is it Varenna to Milano? Should I ticket this as all one ticket?

You can save money with advance tickets on the Intercity or Freccia trains but not on the Regionale trains. Those are always priced the same so there's no benefit in buying tickets in advance (although it is possible to do that if you wish).

It appears that the express-train legs on quite a number of the departures are sold out. [Dario says there's a different explanation--see below.] You're traveling on a Sunday; perhaps it's a holiday weekend?

In addition to the over-7-hour 10:37 departure you found, I see a 12:37 option taking 2 hours less and getting you to Manarola at the same time, just after 18:00.

There is no timetable change in early September. Not the kind of "All Europe change" that blocks bookings.
Trenitalia is not saying those trains are sold out or that they won't run, just that you can't book them now. It's August 27, how could ever a train running in October be sold out? Since...

• they have blocked all the bookings only on long distance trains with reserved seats that end their run in Tuscany, while the locals that run on the same lines can be booked
• There have been works on the lines in Tuscany for 3 months and those works should have ended before 15/9 (end of The summer holidays for kids)
• 20/10 is a Sunday, the best day of the week to reconnect the lines when delayed works are finished
• Viaggiatreno says that those trains codes do not exist while Trenitalia shows them
• Politicians want to be re-elected

...You can rest assured that after 15/9 those trains will run with different codes.

Hadn't thought about the construction/repair being done on Sunday. But clearly Sunday is on a restricted schedule because all of those routes are available for booking on the 21st. Avoid Sunday and problem solved.

UGG, I had looked at that date a month or so ago and the routes were there. Is the consensus the routes aren’t available and will not be available due to track maintenance on the Sunday? If I had more days in CT orComo, it would be no biggie. Hotels, air, itinerary all set. If I leave Monday, I should really just go to Florence since I would have very little time in CT. No car rental in Varenna. . .

I just checked Trenitalia from Milano to Manarola. Some intercity trains aren't available, but there are plenty of other connections that aren't much worse, and these can be purchased already (not that you need to for those that only involve régionale trains).

Please... It's exactly te opposite. The routes ARE there.

There is no need to avoid that Sunday: those trains will run, only under a different code. You are making a storm in an espresso cup.
If Trenitalia knew those trains won't run they wouldn't show them on line.

Nobody books trains months in advance, they blocked the bookings while waiting for the new routes and the new codes to be used for the booking system. That's all.

So Dario, I know there will be some trains, but will there be trains that allow me to get to Manarola in about 5 hours or less? I've thought thru this and you are right, a storm in an espresso (LOVE THAT) or a mountain out of a mole hill, however you put it, its not the biggest deal. I thought about dumping Varenna completely and adding a night to Manarola and a night to Florence, but husband was looking forward to a "peek" at Como, whereas I was more interested in CT. So we are keeping the itinerary and will go with whatever happens. Still hope to get to Manarola by 3 or so and will keep an eye on that website. I do now see a couple regional trains do get me to Manarola by 4:30, sadly not by 3:30, but life goes on.

There will be the trains that now you see as non available, with a different code and - maybe - a slightly different departure time. As I said.
Even if I was wrong, on October 20 you could take one of the Thello trains that depart from Milano Centrale to Genova Piazza Principe at 7:10 (#141) and at 11:10 (#143). 1 hour and 34 minutes. Or the Frecciarossa #9795 at 18:25.

From Genoa PP to Manarola you'll always find a couple of locals to get on at the last second. 3 hours and 40 minutes from Milan to ManaRoLa, but you'll have to tansfer 3 times rather than 2.

The 2 Thello trains are bookable on the 20th because their final destination is in France, not in Tuscany. They must be working somewhere between La Spezia and Florence.

I'm not concerned that I won't be able to get from Varenna to Manarola. Just concerned that we spend an entire day in train stations or on a train.

As I wrote above, You can get from Milano Centrale to Manarola in less than 4 hours if you book a Thello train on trenitalia.com.
So, even if the missing trains won't be back, you won't waste a day travelling.

"Storm in an Espresso cup"..... that's a good one that I'll try to remember!

As mentioned earlier, don't worry about this now. Revisit the Trenitalia website in September, perhaps a month before your trip. Easy train solutions should be available then.

Okay, still no tickets for the quicker route from Milan to Manarola. We were really hoping to get to CT by 3pm "ish". We were going to leave at 10:30am. Now the best we can do is an itinerary that gets us there at about 5, with us in transit for 6.5 hours. If we leave later in the day from Varenna, we will get more time in Varenna, but not enough where we could take a ferry ride somewhere and make it back it time for a mid day train. Giving some thought to contacting the small inn that we are staying at in Manarola and asking about suggestions for a private driver from Milan Central. Is this a sound idea? It is about a 3 hour drive. What approximately would someone pay for this? Our train tickets, Milan to Manarola would be about 50 euro.

At least 300-400 euro.

Gerri, well, that puts that to bed, haha!

Update. With travel a few weeks away, low and behold, today (or maybe yesterday) Trenitalia put the tickets up and available for purchase. Given the long wait for these tickets to be posted, I anticipated a surly transaction. It turned out to be a piece of cake, the English version was easy to navigate and my VISA card was immediately accepted.