Venice to Cinque Terre then to Rome

If you are traveling light I would not bother leaving my stuff in LaSpezia... just take it. Is there a reason you are choosing Corniglia? It would not be my first choice of where to stay. I would also look into flying out of Florence of Pisa if you do not want to spend any time in Rome. I would probably just stay 2 nites in the same destination in CT, do some day hikes. Leaves you only one day for Venice... lots of moving around especially if you stay 2 different hotels in CT.

lisa,

"We do not want to cram too many destinations in a small amount of time"

Unfortunately, that's what you'll be doing with this Itinerary. A few points to consider......

• The trip from Venice to the Cinque Terre is going to take the better part of a day (~6 hours with several train changes).
• If you're planning to hike from town-to-town on the popular Sentiero Azzurro trails, that may not be possible as only one of the four segments is open at the present time. You could of course hike some of the many other trails which go further up into the hills, but that will take a long longer.
• Spending one night in Riomaggiore and one night in Monterosso is not an efficient use of travel time.

With such a VERY SHORT Itinerary, I'd suggest skipping one of the three places.

Thank you both,

The train I was looking at would arrive in Riomaggiore around 1pm so thats why i was thinking of doing the "easier" trails (or take trains if need be) to Corniglia for the rest of that day and evening and stay there the night. Than take the next day to hike to Vernazza and Monterosso - what do you think? what else would you suggest for a Cinque Terre itinerary? I'd really like to start South and go North but would you suggest that starting in Monterosso and going south be better? Maybe stay both nights in either Monterosso or Vernazza?

thanks for your suggestion about flying out of Pisa or Florence - I will look into it. We had thought of Rome just because the flights are cheaper, but neither of us have our heart set out on Rome unless we could happen to fit it in - but again, i'd rather not cram.

In the CT I will usually do a small amount of hiking especially the shorter, easier trails, but I don't care about going from one destination to another... It is all beautiful. I like to take the train to all of the villages and just hang out a while in each one. I also took a boat one time from ? can't remember... and it was fun. But I really do like the view of the villages from the train rather than the water. For me it is just a place to chill out and enjoy the sea. There are lots of tourists... and it will probably be hot, but the evenings are more enjoyable after the day trippers have left.

If it were open the whole way, you could hike the entire thing easily in one day, sadly, however, it isn't. I was just there a week or so ago, trail 2 is open from Monterosso-Vernazza-Corniglia, and that's it. We stayed 2.5 days, and as much as I loved the area, both my fiance' and I agreed that 1.5 days would have been better. We're from Denver and avid hikers, (also used to being up to 14000 ft over sea level, so being at sea level is a huge benefit), so we blew through the trails pretty quickly (when people weren't in front of us at least) - also, at least from what we found, the food wasn't nearly as good as the rest of Italy. Its a fun, beautiful, worthwhile place, but you can feel satisfied with having seen in relatively quickly IMO.

Honestly, if it were me, I would train in with everything to Monterosso early afternoon, and hang out, maybe train to Riomaggiore. Next day, wake up early, hike to Corniglia and back, stopping along the way in Vernazza, then leave.

OR, go to Florence and day trip the CT.

Spend the extra time in Florence, if you haven't been.

Thank you very much guys!

I like that idea thinking that doing a bit of hiking around but taking the trains to each village is great. Just relaxing in the towns instead of hiking the whole time will be more worthwhile. Spending the afternoon in Monterosso and chilling out and then spending the next day doing a bit more (starting very early) seems ideal. this would allow us to spend a quiet 2nd night in and leave very early the next day.

very much appreciated!

There is no direct night train from Prague to Venice, unless you are able to confirm it's continued existence by email with euraide@verizon.net. A few years ago, they used to know about one train car that made all the connections, but never was reflected on DB train schedules. Otherwise, you make a connection at either Munich or Vienna. (If using a flexi-style rail pass, then starting with the overnight train to Vienna and connecting in the morning uses only one rail pass travel day.) To explore budget flights, see www.skyscanner.com.

When we trained from Venice to CT, I think we left around 9 a.m. and arrived in Monterosso around 3 p.m., so I think it might take longer thank you realize (or maybe you're leaving earlier?). I would highly recommend Monterosso as the place to spend the night (both nights), as it has more to offer for restaurants and places to visit at the end of the day (and you might enjoy resting at the beach with a book after your hiking). We had 2.5 days and loved every minute of it (and didn't hike at all between the cities), so I think it just depends on what you're looking for.

Plus, the trails that are open may differ by the time you arrive in August -- it will be hard to plan it out too much in advance.

We had a 1.5 day itinerary in Oct. last year. To make the best use of our time and have a chance to see each town, we split the days like this:
Day 1 Leave Venice 7:30 am, arrive Vernazza around 2:00 pm. Check into hotel, look around Vernazza. Hike (1 hour) to Monterosso for dinner and evening walk through town and stroll on beach.

Day 2 Check out of Hotel, leave luggage at trainstation. Train to Riomaggiore. We then wandered through each town and hiked or trained back toward Vernazza. We planned our time for a final stroll and gelato in Vernazza before we gathered our luggage and took the train to La Spezia that afternoon around 3:00 pm.

It was an efficient way to see a lot and not have to carry our bags from town to town. My group of 4 couples all felt that 1.5 days was plenty to see CT.
Have a great time!

Awesome, thank you so much your replies. I think we will be staying in Monterosso for 2 nights (so we'll have about 1.5 - 2 days). We will arrive in the afternoon to settle in and just wander around and have a nice dinner, maybe take a train to another village. On day 2 we'll spend most of it exploring the other towns, either train or hiking to them, and then spend our last night in Monterosso and leave mid-morning or early afternoon to take a train to Rome.

We'll be half way through our Euro-Trip when leaving Venice, so our stay in CT will be a perfect place for us to unwind, enjoy the culture and nature. I cannot wait and I really appreciate your input.

Thanks again everyone!

And thank you Laura. We are still debating on taking a short flight from Prague (which gives us 1 extra day) or taking the train that connects through Vienna. I'm still in the process of comparing the pros and cons of both but thank you so much for your information!