travel from Venice to CT?

Sorry, but I'm confused. Are you going to stay in the CT overnight or are you planning on just passing through on your way to Florence?

Jeff, most train runs from Venice to the CT via Pisa wil actually stop in Florence. In fact, you will change trains from a high-speed to a Regionale train there for your journey to La Spezia via Pisa. Other runs route through Milan and do not go via Pisa. About 6.0hrs for the entire journey. You can see the train runs on www.trenitalia.com. Let me know if you need more help in spotting these runs.

Sorry, I am confused,too! Our hope was to visit Venice, then travel to, and spend a day or two, in Cinque Terre. Then, we'd leave CT, stop in Pisa briefly to see the tower, and go to Florence. We were hoping to avoid passing through Florence on the way out and then come back to the city for our visit, so we were curious about other routes that would not be significantly longer or more expensive. Hope this Clarifies things a bit,if not please ask again.

The other route goes through Milan and Genoa. Depending where in Ct you are going, it may take 30minutes longer. But if you time it right, you can get to Monterosso, for example, with only a single change, at Milan. The Florence route would require a minimum of two changes. I don't know how the costs compare.

Ok, I see the over all plan now. While it is certainly possible to go to the CT from Venice, it makes for a very long day. The travel time on the train is about 6 hours. That includes some time spent in Florence changing trains. Many people suggest putting your time in Florence in between Venice and the CT because of the length of the trip. So you would train from Venice to Florence. Around 2 hours on the fast train. You would spend your nights in Florence. You would then train from Florence to the CT which is about 3 hours. If you wanted, you could make a stop in Pisa to see the Piazza dei Miracoli.

We did that trip in September. We took the train from Venice, hopping on about 11 am. We went via Genoa and it did take about 6 hours. But it was nice to sit still for awhile and rest/read/chat. We purchased sandwiches before leaving Venice (at that market in the train station) and had lunch while watching the scenery. Great way to travel!

Thanks. So the plan was/is Venice to CT to Pisa to Florence to Rome. If we went Venice to Florence to Pisa to CT, how do you get from Ct to Rome? In a slightly different thought, I have read you need to make reservation sot climb the Leaning Tower at least 2 weeks in advance. Is this still t?

Jeff, I'll answer one of the "easy" questions first. Travel from the Cinque Terre to Rome is VERY simple. There's a direct train (no changes) from La Spezia Centrale to Roma Termini. Travel time is about 3H:45M. That's definitely the one I'd use, as it's the easiest method. One route you could consider (with travel times via ES/AV shown) is: > Venice to Florence (2H:03M) > Florence to Cinque Terre, via Pisa (2H:26M direct, longer if you stop in Pisa) You didn't specify which of the five Cinque Terre villages you'd be staying in, so I used La Spezia as the destination. If you're coming from Florence, you'll have to transit through La Spezia anyway, as it's the southern "gateway" to the Cinque Terre. The trip from La Spezia to the five villages is very easy (from there to Riomaggiore is only about eight minutes!). Happy travels!

Thanks,Ken. That's very helpful. Reading about Rome is a bit daunting. But then, we negotiated New Dehli, including arriving at 1AM and immediately having our taxi driver hauled off by the police while they are hitting him and he is screaming to us,"Don't leave!" Travel is always exciting.

"Travel is always exciting." LOL