Rome to Cinque Terre - how to get there?

Wendy - Rome to LaSpezia. Then transfer to the local train which stops at all five towns. And, once there, you can use the local train to go back and forth to the other towns.

Just don't stick your head out the window...

There are several routes using several kinds of trains. For detailed timetables, go to www.bahn.de and click on "Internat. Guests." Enter Roma as your departure point and Vernazza as your arrival point. After you get summary timetables, click on "Details for all" to see the connecting points. For even more detail, click on "Show intermediate stops" for any route you wish.

For both timetables and fares, go to www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html.

There are a few trains throughout the day that go from Rome to La Spezia. These are ICPlus trains that have as few as 8 stops along the way. You won't go up through Florence. Instead, you to the Western coast of Italy and up through Livorno and Pisa. The journey takes about 4hrs 45min. You'll have to change to a local in La Spezia to get you to Vernazza (about 20 minutes. Click on this LINK to see a sample train schedule.

Wendy,

As the others have indicated, the easiest method is Rome to La Spezia, and then transfer to the small "local" train. I did that trip last fall, and it was wonderfully easy. As I recall, it was about a four hour trip.

When you're travelling on the "local" train, BE SURE to keep track of the towns. Be ready to disembark, as the train only stops for a minute or so.

As someone else suggested, when checking the schedule, use Vernazza as your destination (if that's where you want to go), as some of the local trains only stop at Riomaggiore and Monterosso al Mare. Once you get to La Spezia, you're almost there. The trip to the first town (Riomaggiore) is only about eight minutes!).

Good luck and happy travels!