Train travel from Florence to Cinque Terre to Venice - suggestions?

Hi CJ. There is no high speed train from Florence to CT. This will be a regional train with one or two changes that will take 2 to 3 hours. Buy your ticket in Italy; do not book online; there is no discount and these trains don't sell out. to get idea of schedule and cost, go to trenitalia.com and put in a date within 7 days of today. p.s. can you do these cities in different order? Florence is between CT and Venice, so you would be backtracking.

CJ, we've done the same journey. No matter how you plan it, it's a triangle with the CT, Florence and Venice in the corners. Bob, is correct that there are no high-speeds from Florence to the CT. It's all by Regionale class trains. Same coming out. The only high-speed you will be on is the one from Florence to Venice. Or, since you are departing from Monterosso, you may go via Genoa and Milan. You will be on a high-speed from Milan to Venice. From Monterosso to Milan, you will be on an IC class train. There will be limited stops on the high-speeds but the Regionales make most stops.

Thank you both for your responses. So, does that mean I cannot book my train reservations now for this? The reason we are going Florence to CT to Venice is based on how we arranged our trip (Rome (tours), Montepulciano (relaxing), Florence (tours), CT (relaxing), Venice. Hotels are all booked in CT\Venice\Florence and I just need to finish the train situation (we are renting a car in Rome and driving to Montepulciano and then to Florence where we will drop it off. I would like to make sure we get to CT in the morning so we can enjoy our stay (since its only two nights). Any more suggestions?

Its not as easy as all that. However, if you leave a little early from Venice you can get to Monterosso before noon as you need. Leave your hotel in time to get to the Station (Venezia Santa Lucia) for a 5:15 departure. Its a regional train so you MUST validate your tickets. Change at Venezia Mestre (you have 14 minutes onto the EuroStar Italia to Firenze S.M.N. (Florence Santa Maria Novella). You will require a compulsory reservation. At Florence you have 18 minutes to join the Regionale train to Pisa Centrale. Its a regional train so you MUST validate your tickets. In Pisa you have 25 minutes to catch the EuroStar Italia to La Spezia Centrale. You will require a compulsory reservation. You will have 27 minutes to catch the Intercity train to
Monterosso. You will require a compulsory reservation. You will arrive at 10:54. I hope this is meets your needs.

or from Firenze S.M.N. (Florence Santa Maria Novella) you could leave at 9:28, taking the Regionale to Pisa Centrale, remember to validate your ticket, 32 minutes to change in Pisa to the Eurostar Italia (mandatory reservation) to La Spezia Centrale and then 31 minutes to change to the Regionale to Monterosso (remember to validate the ticket), arriving just after noon at 12:39.

The answers above are confusing, especially Nigel's, which has you going backwards from Venice to Monterosso. (Unusual as Nigel is usually spot on.). Also, you do not need to travel on Regional trains for any of this except between Florence and Pisa. The rest can all be done on IC and ES trains (the latter are the fast Freccia ("arrow") trains. From Florence to Monterosso, you can do the journey with a single change at Pisa. Depart Firenze SMN at 10:28 on the Regional train to Pisa. Then change to the IC train which goes to Monterosso, arriving at 12:54. If you want to arrive earlier, you can depart Florence T 7:53 but you will have an additional change at ALS Spezia. From Monterosso to Venice, you must choose between the simplest trip, with a single change in Milan, or the faster trip via Florence. The faster trip, 5 hours, goes back to Pisa on IC train, then to Florence on Regional train, and then the fast ES train to Venice. The simpler trip takes 45 minutes longer, but you have a single change at Milan and you will see new scenery. For this route, you depart Monterosso at 10:55 on IC 666' which goes up the coast to Genoa and on to Milan with no change. At Milan you would have 15 minutes to make the 14:05 ES train to Venice so you'll have to hustle, and if the IC is running late you could miss it. There is another ES train leaving an hour later, at 15:05. You can buy tickets in advance on Trenitalia for all trains other than the Regionale train between Florence and Pisa. But really, the only reason to do so is to get the discount mini fares. You can also buy your tickets at any station in Italy once you get there. Take a look at the Trenitalia website to see your options. You can cross-checknwith Bahn.de or Rail.ch for schedule options, but to buy you must use Trenitalia.