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any transport suggestions for italy- rome, florence, cinque terre

Hello, I'm new to the postings here. We are travelling to Italy for the first time and are planning 7-8 days for rome (3 days), florence (2 days) and cinque terre (2 days). We hope to fly into Rome, the rest of it is flexible. All dates are approximate (and really hopeful) as we are still planning our itinerary.

My question is, considering the most budget-friendly options, what are the best train routes (or any better options) to get from each city to city to maximize our sight seeing times? How do we get to Cinque Terre from Florence, and should we consider flying out from Milan?

We are considering an open-jaw ticket with the following: coming from california into italy, from italy to greece, and eventually back to california.

Any details such as train names would be appreciated! I've looked at Trenitalia, and I'm a bit lost as what the differences between the trains are, aside from price and route.

Posted by
3112 posts

Between Rome and Florence, you'll have 2 options. The high speed trains (labeled ES or A) will get you there in about 1.5 hours but are more expensive. The slower trains (IC Plus, IC, IR or R) take longer as they make more stops, but will save you up to 50%. Only the slower trains run between Florence and Cinque Terre, and all take about the same amount of time (about 3 hours). Travel time between Cinque Terre and either Rome or Milan is similar. Milan might be a slightly shorter train trip. Also consider flights home from Pisa, which is the closest major airport to Cinque Terre. Note that the train names (fastest to slowest) mean: A = Alta Velocita, ES = Eurostar, IC Plus and IC = InterCity, IR = Interregional and R = Regional.