Travel from Venice to Cinque Terre or Florence in May 2012

The most common train route from Venice to the CT has a train change in Florence. Thus, for either choice, you most likely will visit the Florence SMN train station. But, to answer your question, this is a common dilema on this website. Either choice will work just fine. If you choose the CT first, you will need to return to Florence. From Florence to Rome is a 1hr35min train journey on the high-speed. The trains are frequent at 2-3 per hour. If you do Florence first and then go to the CT, there are runs that will return you to Florence for the high-speed run there. There are also alternate runs down the west side of Italy that do not require you to return to Florence. The train journey here takes 3hrs21min and the runs are not frequent (about 4 high-speed trains a day)

Tracy, The route I'd suggest would be to travel Venice > Florence > Cinque Terre > Rome, as each of the transportation links will be reasonably short. The trip from Venice to Florence is only about two hours via EuroStar Italia. From Florence to the C.T. (using La Spezia as the "gateway") is as short as 2H:09M, sometimes with one change at Pisa Centrale. Trains are usually Regionale on that route, so most times no reservations required (but DON'T forget to validate!). From La Spezia to each of the five villages is only a short trip (ie: from there to Riiomaggiore, the most southerly village, is only about 9 minutes or so). From La Spezia to Rome is about 3H:21M via direct train (reservations will be required). While that's a bit longer than from Florence to Rome, it's still a very easy and pleasant trip (the first part of that trip will have some ocean views as I recall, which will make you sorry that you're leaving the Cinque Terre). Happy travels!

Thank you Larry and Ken, this information is very helpful and will enable me to begin planning in earnest. Based on this guidance, I think I'll opt for Venice > Florence > Cinque Terre > Rome. Would it behoove me to book rail passes in advance or simply take care of it upon arrival in the country? My wife is an accountant who loves structure, and although I'm trying to encourage her to embrace a more relaxed approach, I should probably understand our options.

Tracy, if you wife is an accountant she may like the cost savings that are often available when booking train tickets in advance on the Trenitalia website. It really depends on your travel style whether to purchase advanced tickets. I prefer having the tickets in hand so that I need not buy tickets at the train station on the day of or even a few days before departure. Either way, you will have a great trip!

Thank you Janelle. I am going to visit the Trenitalia website and book the tickets. I once heard, but have never said, "happy wife, happy life" as it seems to apply in this case.

Tracy, being that May is more than 90 days out, you might not see a solution on www.trenitalia.com. I've looked at I don't see one. However, I can see the schedules within 90 days out. Here's another hint. The mini-fares are only good on the high-speed runs. No mini-fares on the Regionale class trains. If you a high-speed train that has both high-speed and Regionale trains on the run, such as your Venice/CT run and your CT/Rome run, you won't see any mini-fares. Strange - but that's our lovable Trenitalia. For example, if you look at your Venice/CT run, you can get a 34Eu mini-fare on the high-speed if you just book the Venice/Florence segment. The regular fare is 43Eu. Then, you would have to wait until you get to Italy to buy the Regionale tickets from Florence to the CT to complete your journey as you can't buy Regionale tickets online by themselves. But, you can buy all of the tickets (high-speed and Regionale) together online. It's just that you won't get the 9Eu savings on the mini-fare. Again, our lovable Trenitalia. Same for your CT/Rome run. If your accountant wife wants to see this in action, I have Go To Meeting on my computer and she can see my screen as I navigate Trenitalia.

Thank you Larry. You're right, I didn't see any fares listed. As for the mini-fares, I follow that in order to save an extra 9 euros I could purchase the Venice to Florence high-speed train for 34 euros rather than the regular fare of 43 euros. I'm assuming the cost from Florence to Cinque Terre is negligible if I decide to go from Venice > Florence > Cinque Terre. I appreciate your help and feedback.

here's another vote for booking ahead, whichever route you take ( and we took train from Monterosso in CT, where we stayed, to Venice w one stop in Milan..loved it): my very tech-savvy daughter and I tried to book tickets for 2 legs of trip from Rome, where we started Italy visit. Website was consistently down. Went to Termini station as hotel clerk recommended, where I waited in long line for agent while daughter tried the much-touted self-service machines. Machines were down, too (agent confirmed this)! ...explaining the long line of frustrated travelers. We bought 2 legs of trip from the efficient agent. Took over 2 hrs, from attempts on website, to walk to/from termini, to waiting in line. Once in Venice station after CT visit, we went right up to agent and bought tix for final 2 legs of trip. took 5 minutes. I'm a "planner" type and it was great relief to know we had all tickets and didn't have to waste any more time on web or in line.
Starting soon w Trenitalia site, you could get lucky, have everything work right away, and be all set with you tix. Have a great trip!

Tracy, sounds right. You buy the ticket with the mini-fare online. Note that this is a non-refundable ticket so make sure you know the date and time you wish to travel. Once you get to Italy, you can buy the tickets from Florence to the CT at any train station. Since you will most likely be on a Regionale class train to the CT (most are), the ticket is an open ticket that is good for 60 days. No train number, departure date or departure time is on this type of ticket. Seat reservations are not permitted on the Regionales. You just walk up to any Regionale train making that run, get on and find a seat. If no seats, you can stand. This part is really easy. Of course, as I described above, you can buy the whole ticket from Venice to the CT online within 90 days and forego the 9Eu you could have saved. You just have to figure if saving 9Eu is worth the extra work. Have fun with your planning.

I have not used them (or even been there yet) but I was just looking at trip advisor last night and found this us tour to Cinque Terre from Florence that had a good rating. http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g187895-d1799599-Reviews-Cinque_Terre_Trek-Florence_Tuscany.html If you go to the companies web site they mention that it is possible to go to Cinque Terre and return on their bus on a future day if there is "space available" but I'm not sure how far in advance they would book that. The tour does not run every day so you would need to check their schedule.

Thank you, very helpful information indeed. I think Cinque Terre warrants two nights and three days based on my findings. I reviewed the link: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g187895-d1799599-Reviews-Cinque_Terre_Trek-Florence_Tuscany.html and it did seem like a very reputable company. I suppose the common theme was the lack of time based on the all of the reviews I read; I hope to avoid this issue by spending three days there relaxing and preparing to "tour" Rome.

From my experience this summer, I went Venice>CT>Florence->Siena->Rome. But CT is a bit out of the way and you will have to connect in Florence so you will feel like you're back tracking regardless of where you put it on your trip. While in the CT, PLEASE eat at Il Pirate. I ate breakfast there every morning. The first morning because it was conveniently across the street. The other 3 mornings because I wanted to try EVERY THING these Sicilian pastry chefs could concoct. Not to mention they are the most interesting, personable individuals. Dinner is also wonderful and I wish I had eaten there more than once! Regarding train tickets, I found it immensely simply to buy the tickets for my next destination upon arrival. So Buy tickets from Florence when you get to Venice. So EASY! Do not fret about tickets while State side, Trenitalia is a nightmare. You can look at train time tables and get a sense of when you would like to depart/arrive so you are prepared to buy when in Italia! Buying in advance is expensive and creates needless inflexibility. You never know when your schedule will change by even 1 hour, which means you are losing money if you miss your train or want to stay longer in a place. Have fun! Italy is extraordinary!!

I will indeed eat at Il Pirate based on Sara's recommendation. I'm uncertain about tickets as some say to purchase in advance and some say purchase when in Italy. Ultimately, I suppose it depends if one likes structure or is comfortable with flexibility.

Back in September we did the Venice > Florence > Cinque Terre > Rome route. I bought the Venice > Florence & Cinque Terre > Rome tickets a couple weeks ahead of time and got discount fares. I wasn't sure about my exact plans for Florence until we made it to Italy, so I actually bought the Florence > Cinque Terre tickets while waiting for the train in Venice. As mentioned before, it was a regional ticket so no reservations were needed. The trips to and from the Cinque Terre had a 45 minute or so wait in La Spezia to change trains. Everything worked out great, and every train was on time, almost exactly to the minute.
If your plans are firm then you should feel comfortable getting tickets early. I would also feel fine waiting to buy tickets until I get there if my plans were more flexible. That is somewhat a personal preference. We are planners and having most of our tickets in hand early fits out style of travel.

We did Venice to CT then Florence. The travel time ended up being significantly more than we expected, so we stayed a night in Modena. If I had to do it over, I'd probably choose the second option, Venice to Florence then CT.