Train travel to Cinque Terre

You cannot find the trains on this date because it involves Regional trains and the schedules will not be published on the internet until after the semiannual European schedule adjustment in mid June. So just look at the schedule for the route on the next Monday. The schedule will probably not change that much.

I find the Deutsche Bahn website usually the easiest to uses for checking schedules, though of course DB isn't going to sell you a ticket from Switzerland to Italy.

Based on the schedule for next Monday, you can get to Sestri Levante in as little as 7 hours, though some exceed 10 hours. TrenItalia is just showing the two 7-hour options. If you wanted a different departure time, you might need to buy the Swiss and Italian travel legs separately if booking through SBB and TrenItalia (just a guess on my part).

One thing to keep in mind on this trip is that some of the longer trips have you sitting around in Milan for quite some time, waiting on a fast train. You pay extra for the fast train but may not get to your destination any earlier than if you had hopped on a regional train in Milan that was leaving sooner.

Enter a date before June 11 for planning.

It's just too early for non high speed trains like those you'll be using from Milan to Manarola to be loaded in the system.

If you are going to Manarola, forget about Sestri (note spelling) and La Spezia: on www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en (the site of the company that actually runs the trains in Italy) just enter Milano Centrale and Manarola, select an hour of departure from the drop down menu and you're done.

If you prefer a slightly slower route with less changes, note that there are 4 or 5 direct Intercity trains from Milano Centrale to Monterosso. Once in Monterosso, you can get on one of the zillions of locals calling at Manarola. Again: forget about Sestri Levante!

Italotreno doesn't serve that route because there are no high speed lines between Milan and Liguria, yet.

Relax, trains always run and nobody worries in March about September's schedules.

Thanks very much everyone, that was very helpful! 😊

Another option would be to take EasyJet.com from Geneva to Pisa and pickup a train to La Spezia. They fly Monday, Wednesday and Friday morthings @ around 37 Euros.

Nicolee,

The easiest trip on 4 Sept. will likely be a departure from Geneva main station at 07:39, arriving Manarola at 15:28 (time 7H:49M, 2 changes at Milan and Monterosso). Although it means an early start, that's about the easiest and quickest trip available that day. The first two trains are express trains (EC & IC) so will get you there in the shortest time possible on that route. The last train is a Regionale which only takes 12 minutes.

In checking that route, I used an arbitrary date of Monday, 5 June. There could be some minor changes after the new schedules are posted, but probably nothing significant.