We first time travelers to Europe and are traveling in June, flying into Rome (4 days) traveling to Florence (4 days) then to Cinque Terre (3 days) to Venice (3 days) then flying Paris (4 days). What is the best way to travel between the cities? Cinque Terre to Venice looked very confusing! I've tried to look at the trains...but it is confusing. We don't know which stations are best and it appears there are 4-5 levels from economy to executive. Do we need to book now? It looked as if some trains were already booked. Appreciate any help for this novice...thanks!
Posted by
Pacific Northwest
2699 posts
You have good pacing on your trip - you will appreciate that as you see these wonderful cities. All of your Italy transfers can be done on the train quite nicely. You are smart to fly to Paris - it's a quick and inexpensive way to get there vs. the train. If you want to buy your train tickets in advance and you can commit to a specific train time, the trenitalia site is easy to use. You are fine with economy tickets on these trains. I almost never walk up to the train station and buy my tickets on the spot - I'm a micro-organizer and like to have all my ticket purchases done before I leave home. There are other posters on this site who will definitely tell you that you're fine walking up to buy tickets. I like seeing all the various prices and times laid out on my screen, so I buy in advance.
Posted by
Kansas, United States
1082 posts
I will be taking the train from Monterosso to Milan then the next day on to Venice in May. I bought my tickets ahead of time using the Rick Steves site and found it to be fairly easy to do. I usually just buy as we go but this trip is going to be on a fixed schedule so I decided to just go ahead get reserved seats so we have one less thing to hassle with.
Posted by
Vernon, Canada
32405 posts
Laura,
To begin with, it would be more efficient to travel Rome > Cinque Terre > Florence > Venice > Paris. The route you mentioned first is very inefficient and will result in more travel time and less sightseeing time.
The best way to travel between cities and towns for the places you mentioned is by train. However as this is your first trip to Europe, there are few potentially expensive caveats to be aware of when using trains and other public transit in Italy. If you need more information, send me a PM.
You can save money with advance purchase tickets on the fast trains, but you must be willing to commit to a specific departure. These trains have compulsory seat reservations which are for one train, date and departure time so the tickets you buy will be specific to train, date and departure time and can ONLY be used on the one train listed on the ticket. If you board the wrong train by mistake, you'll be subject to hefty fines which will be collected on the spot!
You'll be travelling on a combination of Regionale trains and fast trains (Freccia, Intercity), and some routes will involve changes so you'll need to get up to speed on those. Tickets for Regionale trains are easilly purchased in Italy, either at a Kiosk or staffed ticket office. With locally purchased Regionale tickets, you MUST validate (time & date stamp) these prior to boarding the train on the day of travel or again, hefty fines.
As this is your first trip to Europe, I'd highly recommend reading Europe Through The Back Door prior to your trip, as it has a lot of good information on "how" to travel well in Europe. For more specific information for the places you'll be visiting, the RS Italy 2016 would be an excellent resource to pack along.
Have you considered which of the five Cinque Terre towns you want to stay in?
Second Class seats on the fast trains are perfectly comfortable. There's no reason to pay for "executive". Regionale trains typically only have second class, so there won't be a choice.
Good luck with your planning!
Posted by
Seattle, WA
17601 posts
For Rome to Florence, you can use either Trenitalia or Italo Treno ( www.italotreno.it). The latter website is more user-friendly and the prices are as good or better. But depending on when you are going in June, their tickets may not be on sale yet. You can also buy Trenitalia tickets from a different website, www.capitaintrain.com, but you will have to create an account with them.
In Rome, the main stations are Roma Termini and Rome Tiburtina. Most Trenitalia trains start at Termini. Many Italo trains start there, and also stop at Tiburtina. You can avoid the initial choice by putting in "Roma (Tutte)" which will look for tickets from both.
In Florence the station is Firenze Santa Maria Novella, often listed as Firenze SML.
The station in Venice is Venezia Santa Lucia, or Venezia S.L. Make sure you choose this and not Venezia Mestre which is on the mainland.
For Cinque Terre to Venice, there are routes via Florence or Parma, and via Milan. The Florence or Parma route is often faster but requires more changes. To keep it simple, I suggest you travel from your Cinque Terre village to Monterosso. There are a few Intercity (IC) trains a day that go direct to Milan, with no other changes. At Milan you change to a Frecce (fast) train to Venice.
The menu should include this itinerary in the route offered, but if not, you can book the legs separately. And if the regional train from your village to Monterosso does not show up, you can add that later or book at the station.
You will save a lot by buying in advance to get the low Super Economy or Low Cost fares, but remember these are inflexible. And sometimes a higher class will be less money---right now on Italo I see "eXtra Large" (more spacious) seats for less than the lower class Smart seats---€18,50 versus €26,90 for Rome to Florence.