Traveling from Venice to Cinque Terre

If you are landing early enough you can go right to Venice (Venezia in Italian train schedules) and skip the one night in Milano. After your Venezia stay, you could go to Florence (Firenze) for your stay there, and then on to the Cinque Terre through La Spezia. There is a morning train, assuming the schedule holds, at 9:53 AM that is direct to La Spezia.

Are you also flying out of Milano? Easy enough to go from the Cinque Terre via Sestre Levante or Rapallo, although you probably will have to go there the night before your flight. Depends on the departure time.

jenny, agreeing with Laurel. Since you won't be able to check in to a Milan hotel until afternoon anyway, you might as well use that otherwise unproductive time on the train ride to Venice.

jenny,

I also agree that it would be prudent to head for Venice right after arrival in Milan, assuming your flight lands at a reasonable hour. While you could purchase tickets for the high speed train from Milan to Venice in advance, most of us here don't recommend that as if your flight is late and you miss the train you've booked, the ticket is worthless and you'll have to buy another. If you need more specific directions on the trip from MXP to Venice, post another note here.

You're correct that the two main routes from Venice to the Cinque Terre pass through either Milan or Florence. I generally prefer the route through Florence. I would help to know which of the five towns you plan on staying in, as that will have a slight bearing on the travel times. Using Monterosso as an example, the shortest travel time from Venice is about 5H:30M, with two changes at Florence and Pisa. The trips through Milan seem to take about half an hour longer.

If you want to save some money and are willing to commit to a specific train departure, you could pre-purchase tickets for the "premium" trains (Freccia, InterCity) you'll be using on the Venice - CT trip. For any segments via Regionale, it's just as easy to buy those from a Kiosk in Italy, as there's no price advantage in buying in advance. With Regionale tickets, DON'T forget to validate or hefty fines may result.

Going straight to Venice is good advice I had not considered. Our plan was to go to visit Florence and CT, and then Sorrento and Rome (flying out of Rome). I know that Rome is closer to CT than Sorrento, but other than that, does it seems logical to from from Venice, to Florence, to CT, to sorrento, then to Rome? My original plan was to go from Venice to CT to Florence but after reading your allow posts I realized that wasn't smart.

jenny,

The order you listed in your last post is the most efficient one - Venice > Florence > Cinque Terre > Sorrento > Rome. The longest travel day will be C.T. to Sorrento, but (IMO) it's better to follow that order shown, especially as your return flight is from Rome.

It will take about 5.5 hours from the C.T. to Napoli Centrale (using La Spezia Centrale as a the departure point). From Naples you'll either have to use the somewhat "colourful" Circumvesuviana for the one hour trip to Sorrento. If you'd rather not deal with the Circumvesuviana, you could arrange a private transfer direct to your hotel.

We arrive into Milan at 1:50 on a Saturday. Should we just go straight on to Venice or stay the night in Milan and go out early Sunday morning? We are in Italy for 14 nights so if we didnt stay in Milan that night we could use that additional night somewhere else...

We arrive into Milan at 1:50 on a Saturday. Should we just go straight on to Venice or stay the night in Milan and go out early Sunday morning?

You have time to get to Venice on Saturday. If your plane is on time, you can take the train from Malpensa Aeroporto to Milano Centrale at 14:58, then catch the 16:05 to Venezia Santa Lucia arriving 18:40. (Note Italian names imperative in booking trains.)

If you do not catch the 14:58, there are trains every 15 minutes to Milano Centrale, and about every 1/2 hour to Venezia, so plenty of time to get there to eat dinner and sleep!

While it is inadvisable to buy discount tickets on the freccia to Venezia from Milano in case you arrive later, you can buy full price tickets (which you will pay if you buy on arrival anyway) that are changeable in case you are delayed.

jenny,

"We arrive into Milan at 1:50 on a Saturday."

I'm assuming the time you're referring to is 13:50? For dealing with trains in Italy or elsewhere in Europe, you'll need to use the 24-hour clock. Even with an afternoon arrival, it should be easily possible to go straight to Venice. You'll arrive late afternoon, so be sure to notify your hotel of the expected arrival time.

In this situation, I would highly recommend buying your tickets when you arrive at the airport rail station. Although you'll pay full price (Base Fare) for the ticket on the Freccia train to Venice, this is a "safer" option than pre-purchasing tickets. While you could take a chance and pre-purchase a Base Fare ticket online, the reality is that if you miss the train you've booked, the procedure to change the ticket is going to be a real nuisance after a long international flight. You'll have to leave the secured track side area at Milano Centrale and go downstairs two floors to the Biglietteria and then stand in a queue (which often extends out the door). After you've obtained your new ticket, back upstairs and then perhaps have to wait in a short queue to get through the security gates to access your train. The whole procedure could add an hour or more to your travel time, not something I'd want to do in a jet lagged state after a long international flight. Just a thought......

Ken, I appreciate the caution you are giving Jenny about pre-purchased discount tickets, and as you can see I advised against it as well, but when you buy tickets online you can change them online and need not have a printed ticket, just the PNR code. So if they miss the scheduled/booked train, it is easy to get rescheduled as long as they have a smartphone. I am not certain, but I think they can also change a full fare ticket at one of the kiosks.