Italian trains--Venice to Vernazza with Pisa stopover???

There are no direct trains for your route so you will need to buy at least three separate tickets. Your first leg is likely to be Venezia Santa Lucia-Firenze on a EuroStar Italia train (a required seat reservation comes with the ticket which is for a specific departure date and time). You can buy one regional train ticket for Firenze-La Spezia, get off in Pisa, and continue on later to La Spezia on another regional train, all on the same ticket. You will also have to buy a separate regional train ticket for La Spezia-Vernazza.

Thanks. I will probably use the self serve automated ticket machines. So do I enter my departure city and my destination city? I assume not since I want to make sure that I go through Pisa instead of coming to Vernazza from the north. Can I enter Venice to Pisa?? Pisa to Vernazza??

You can buy all your tickets in Venice: Venezia Santa Lucia-Firenze, Firenze-La Spezia, and La Spezia-Vernazza. Or you can buy them as you go. In either case each ticket will be for a specific departure point and a specific arrival point. Just be sure that you buy a regional train ticket for Firenze-La Spezia so you have the most flexibility for stopping off in Pisa. Why? It's possible to travel part of the Firenze-Pisa-La Spezia route on trains that require reservations. For those trains your ticket will be for a specific departure date and time and your ticket will only be good for that train. No reservations are possible on regional trains and you can take any one you wish--or break up the trip with a stopover enroute (like Pisa).

Excellent! Thanks so much for your help. Last time I travelled in Italy it was with a Eurail pass so I didn't have to deal with reservations. Thanks for clarifying for me. Grazie!

You're welcome! Be sure to validate each ticket in the yellow box. You'll be subject to a large fine if you forget.