Hello fellow travelers! On October 9, 2022, I will be traveling from Cinque Terre to Venice to begin my RS tour (start point is Venice). I searched this topic, but all of the responses are YEARS old - ancient! So, has anyone recently done this route by train? It does look like you can go La Spezia to Pisa to Florence to Venice. Yuck - that's a lot of switching. Also, you could go to Milan and make one switch. Any input? Seems like the "many switch" route could result in missed connections if any trains are late, doesn't it? If you've done this recently, I'd love to hear from you! :)
Posted by
585 posts
Take the local train to Genova and then the fast train (just over 4 hours) direct to Venice. The local train takes about an hour to get to Genova and fare is cheap, but fare Genova to Venice is considerably more expensive depending on how far in advance you book. Seems like train to Venice leave Genova every 2 hours. Check out Ron2Rio for other routings or the Trenitalia site.
Posted by
OP
Anacortes, WA
35 posts
Thank you! The Genoa to Venice hadn't come up before, so I will definitely check that out!
Posted by
Green Bay
20017 posts
Don't bother with Ron2Rio, or even Rome2Rio. Trenitalia runs the trains and they will know the exact schedules of the trains they operate.
https://www.trenitalia.com/en.html
Posted by
OP
Anacortes, WA
35 posts
Thank you - that's what I used. :)
Posted by
Italy
3812 posts
The Genoa to Venice hadn't come up before
Because in Summer there is only one daily direct Frecciargento from Genoa to Venice. Unfortunately it departs from Genoa Brignole station at 7:05 AM. To see it shown on trenitalia.com , you should enter a very early hour of departure from Monterosso.
This direct Genoa-Venice train makes many intermediate stops (including Milan at 8:35 AM) and finally arrives in Venice at 11:12 AM. The only way to be in Genoa at 7:05 AM would be departing from Monterosso at 5 AM. And you should take an InterCity from Monterosso to Genoa, not a local train.
You might as well wake up at a more civilized hour and go from Monterosso to Venice changing trains in Milan instead of Genoa.
Be aware that if you use different railway companies for different legs of the same journey, your connections won't be protected. On the other hand, if you buy a through ticket from Monterosso to Venice with Trenitalia the "many switches" and the "missed connections" because of late Trenitalia trains would be a problem of Trenitalia, not yours.
Posted by
melbourne FL
60 posts
See the thread below, I had asked a similar question a few weeks back and got some great answers. In summary, there is a train with one change over in Milan, and the general consensus was to go ahead and book it now
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/cinque-terre-to-venice-by-train
Posted by
OP
Anacortes, WA
35 posts
Very helpful, everyone. It's a little "scary" traveling on your own, so I appreciate your assistance. :)