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Nervous re: Cinque Terre to Barcelona travel -- short time for transfer

I'm getting a headache trying to figure out how to get from the Cinque Terre, Italy to Barcelona, Spain on a Friday. The best I've come up with is traveling by train to Milan and then taking an EasyJet flight from Milan to Barcelona. I'm really concerned about missing the flight if I miss a transfer during my train ride from Cinque Terre to Milan. Specifically, the train ride gives me a window of ONLY nine (9) minutes to transfer at one point (Genova). How little time is too little??

Vernazza Fr, 26.11.10 dep 11:08 R 2181 Regionalzug
La Spezia Centrale Fr, 26.11.10 arr 11:32

La Spezia Centrale Fr, 26.11.10 dep 11:53 IC 9764 Intercity
Genova Piazza Principe Fr, 26.11.10 arr 13:08

Genova Piazza Principe Fr, 26.11.10 dep 13:19 IC 140 Intercity
Milano Centrale Fr, 26.11.10 arr 14:55

Milano Centrale Fr, 26.11.10 dep 15:57 ES 9520 EuroStar Italia
Malpensa Aeroporto Fr, 26.11.10 arr 16:39

Posted by
368 posts

That is tight, but not unheard of. It depends on how big the station is, which I unfortunately cannot answer as the net only gives pictures of the outside from what I can find.

Posted by
2876 posts

If you haven't already bought your tickets, you'd be much better off just flying Easyjet from Genoa to Barcelona, rather than going all the way to Milan - and probably missing a train connection along the way.

Posted by
8700 posts

I'm sorry, but Tom's suggestion won't work. EasyJet doesn't serve Genoa.

Train service from Milano Centrale to Malpensa is quite limited. I suggest that you take R 24504 from Vernazza to Monterosso, departing at 10:27 and arriving at 10:31. Take IC 666 from Monterosso to Milano Centrale, departing at 10:55 and arriving at 13:55. Take a shuttle bus to the airport. There are two bus companies, Malpensa Bus Express and Malpensa Shuttle Air Pullman, and buses run at least every 30 minutes. The ride takes 50 minutes.

Posted by
17435 posts

What Tim said. Why go south to La Spezia when the northbound connection works better? That regional train that he suggested will connect with the IC train to Milan with NO change at Genoa. You will arrive there at 13:55. We took this sequence last June and everything was on time, but of course one cannot count on that. Still, it would give you more leeway for the connections.

Posted by
11 posts

Thanks for the suggestion! That train/rail option looks like the better bet.

Posted by
2876 posts

Re: Easyjet & Genoa. My error. I was using skyscanner.com and must have somehow mis-clicked. Thanks to Tim for the correction.