traine from Venice to Cinque Terre

You're trying to do a whole lot, possibly too much. Remember you lose 1/2 day every time you move. Start your trip in Venice, where you need 3 nights. Move over to Florence, where you also need 3 nights minimum. Rent a car and move 20 miles south for another 3 nights, doing day trips to Siena, San Gimignano and Volterra. Take a train from Florence to Rome, where you'll need 4 nights. Cinque Terre is a train trip west of Florence to Pisa, then transfer to La Spezia, where you'll catch a slow local train going up the coast to the Cinque Terre. It's about a 3 hour trip, and not terribly expensive. You could do it staying one night before heading south to Rome. Pompeii is a 2 hr. train trip south of Rome. You could essentially give up one day in Rome to do a day trip down there. It's probably just a little too much, as Rome has so much to see on its own.

Shelley, If you want to travel directly from Venice to the Cinque Terre, the current schedules show a departure from Venezia Santa Lucia to La Spezia Centrale at 09;27, arriving 14:19 (time 4H:52M, one change at Firenze SMN). The current second class fare is listed at €54.30. I didn't check to see whether a "Mini" fare may be possible for the portion from Venice to Florence (which requires reserved seats). The second part of the journey is via Regionale (don't forget to validate). You didn't specify which of the five villages you'd be staying in, so I used La Spezia in the search. It's VERY easy to get from there to any of the CT towns via the local train. If you're planning to visit Civita di Bagnoregio, you'll need to stop in Orvieto for at least one night, so I'm not sure how much time you'll have for the "hill towns" with such a short time frame. A day trip from Orvieto to Bagnoregio and then Civita by Bus will take the better part of a day. IMHO, you don't have time for a day trip to Pompeii. That's a LONG TRAVEL DAY to do from Rome! My suggestion would be to leave that for a future trip, when you have the time to stay in Sorrento for a few days and see that area properly. Happy travels!

Thanks for the replies, and apologies for my spelling errors and lack of trip detail.
Believe it or not we are going to forgo seeing Florence because of time. The plan was to find the quickest route from Venice to Cinque Terre. And then the best way to see some interesting hill towns by either train or bus as we head towards Rome. It occured to me that Pompeii would be too ambitious but it was on my husbands and daughters wish list.

And just to clarify our timeframe we will be leaving California May 25 and arriving back home June 11. That is where I guessed at the 14 to 15 days of vacation. Thanks again.