Train to and from Cinque Terre

I don't understand what you wrote in the post. You leave Florence at Noon and depart to Lucca the next day at 3pm. Not sure what you do in between since Lucca is only about 40 miles away (just over an hour by slow Regionale train).
Nevertheless, you don't need to buy tickets ahead of time, in fact you shouldn't. Your travels are likely all aboard regional trains and there is no advantage (no discounts) in buying them ahead of time.
Just buy tickets at the station. When you are ready to go. The name of Lucca station is LUCCA, the name of Monterosso station is MONTEROSSO. Couldn't be any easier.

Let me rephrase. We are leaving Florence to Cinque Terre at noonish Wednesday and are leaving Cinque Terre to Lucca the following day, Thurs, around 3pm. Thus will have about 24hrs in Cinque Terre. When looking at tickets via Captain Train, they had some tickets listed as sold out, which got me worried.

Thanks for confirming my original thought, no need to pre purchase tickets.

Kathi,

As Roberto mentioned, you can easily buy tickets in Florence. Check the Trenitalia schedules to get some idea of the travel times and train composition. It's likely that one of the trains will be a fast train and the others will be Regionale, so you wouldn't save much with advance purchase tickets. I normally like to buy the day prior to travel so I don't have to deal with queues at the Kiosks or whatever on the day of travel.

Don't be too concerned about trains "selling out". Regionale trains rarely sell out, although you may have to stand for part of the trip.

I wouldn't suggest doing an "evening hike" to Vernazza. There's a steep climb at the Monterosso end and other parts of the trail are quite narrow. I wouldn't want to do that hike in poor lighting as it could be treacherous. There likely won't be too many others on the trail at that time so if you had problems you could be waiting a long time for help.

I don't think you'll have the time to take the Ferry to Porto Venere, get back and then take the train to Lucca. That trip is best when you have the better part of a day. Using the local trains will be a much quicker and more efficient way to travel between the towns.

Thanks Ken. Another question, I understand the trains don't always run on time, if you get a reginale ticket, do you have to board that specific train? What if you then miss your connection due to it being late, do you just board the next train or need to reticket? Thanks!

Regional train tickets are not for specific dates and times. If you buy them in the station, then you use the box/device near the tracks to validate it, which adds a date & time stamp to the ticket. You then have a limited amount of time to complete the trip, depending on distance. Most rides within the CT give you 75 minutes to complete, longer routes give you 6 hours; see also p. 346 of Rick's Italy book, if you have it. Regional train tickets bought online come pre-validated with a travel start time, still not for a specific train. There's usually no benefit to buying these online. Since reserved trains like IC or Frecce are more expensive, you cannot use a regional ticket on those departures; don't board an IC by accident.

Kathi,

As Laura mentioned, tickets for Regionale trains do not have compulsory seat reservations and are not specific to a particular train. If the train is late, you can still use the ticket for a specific length of time after the ticket is validated, or even catch the next train assuming it's also a Regionale. DON'T validate the tickets until just prior to boarding the train on the day of travel, as they have a shelf life after validating, which is typically 4-6 hours depending on the route length.

Thanks all, that helps a lot! Leaving for Prague in the morning...our adventure begins!

Portovenere is lovely. On about our 3rd or 4th visit to the CT we decided to take the boat from Vernazza, where we always stay, to Portovenere. Was in July, weather was beautiful and boat ride so enjoyable.