My friend and I are planning our first trip to Italy. We're flying into Venice and out of Rome. We have rooms booked for three nights in each of those cities, and are planning to take trains between. Originally, we were going to just go to Florence in the middle, but after reading so much about Cinque Terre, we are thinking about going there for a day or two before heading to Florence. What is the best way to go from Venice to CT to Florence? Any and all help is greatly appreciated!!
Posted by
Ottawa, Ontario,, Canada
521 posts
All the routes can be checked through the Deutsche Bahn website. When you search between two places it will show you the available trains and connections. Just check a time, and click the arrow on the left-hand side to see all the connections in-between.
For this route, you might find it easiest to take the train from Venice to Florence, and then go from Florence to the CT before moving down to Rome, just due to the train connections.
Posted by
US Pacific Northwest
10344 posts
By train, not driving. I don't remember anyone here figuring out a super-efficient way to get from Venice to the CT by train: your train will go through either Milan or Florence to get to the CT, there is no straight line rail route. The station to station time from Venice to CT is between 6.25 and 7.0 hours, depending on which CT town you're going to. When you add your time to pack up, check out, get to the train station, wait for the train, and do the same thing on the destination end, getting from Venice to the CT will eat up all day, 8 hours.To see why I say this, go here to see the train schedules http://bahn.hafas.de/bin/query.exe/en. To see a map for each train, click show details for all and then click show map.Some people go Venice - Florence - CT - Rome (in that order). And some do Venice - CT - Florence - Rome. There doesn't seem to be any clear advantage one way or the other. There is some inefficiency or backtracking either way you do it.
Posted by
Chicago, Illinois, USA
586 posts
As usual, Kent is right on target! But I would add this one personal suggestion: since there's absolutely no easy way to get from Venice to Cinque Terre without devoting almost an entire day to traveling, and since doing Florence first, then Cinque Terre and Rome, involves considerable backtracking, why not save Cinque Terre for another trip? While it's beautiful and unique, sounds like you have just 9 nights on this first Italian journey. If that's the case, I think you'd find 3 nights Venice, 3 nights Florence, and 3 nights Rome wonderful. You could even day trip from Florence to nearby Siena (an hour bus ride). Cinque Terre does work well with Florence/Tuscany and then heading north to Genova and Milano and the lakes north of Milan (Maggiore, Como), flying home from Milan. Sounds to me like a reason to go back to Italy sometime!
Posted by
OP
Santa Monica, CA, USA
4 posts
Thank you all for your advice. I'm already overwhelmed planning this trip and it's months away. I really appreciate your tips! Maybe we'll save it for the next time...