I'm trying to figure out whether to take a train(s) or rent a car to get from Venice to Vernazza. It would be 3 or 4 trains to make the trip, which makes me thing I should rent a car. But, if I rent a car I need to drop it off in La Spezia, which would be OK but it must be a small rental offcie as it's only open 1/2 days on Saturday and not at all on Sundays. Has anyone made this trip before?
Posted by
Elk Grove, CA, USA
6898 posts
It looks like you can go through either Milan or Florence. Either way, it's about a 7hr journey. You are correct on the number of train changes. I have seen one run that leaves Venice in the afternoon with a train change in Bologna and La Spezia. About 6.5 hours. But, it's much more fun to arrive in the early afternoon and have all afternoon to be a tourist. Unless you have a ton of luggage, don't worry about the train changes. The train system actually works quite well.
Posted by
Portlandia
3313 posts
Unless you have a lot of luggage and/or people, don't rent a car. Train transfers aren't hard and you don't have to worry about directions and other drivers.
If you rent a car, take into account the time it will take you to pick up and drop off the car; map out your trip and navigate to and from the rental car offices (although in Venice that's not hard). Meanwhile, you could be relaxing in your train seat looking at the countryside with no worries about whether or not you should have taken the CDW.
And this from me - I've driven all over Italy. But because I want to get to smaller towns not served by train. The Cinque Terre are well served by train.
Posted by
Seattle, WA
313 posts
I agree -- we did the same trip by train and the connections really weren't as bad as it might look. I think we went through Florence or Prato, not Milan, but I wouldn't be afraid of any of these. If you're visiting the Cinque Terre towns I think you always have to change in La Spezia. The Italian trains were great -- pretty much on time, and easy to figure out where to catch it.
To be honest, we stopped over in several small train stations, which turned out to be good memories by themselves -- small lunch counters with waiters/waitresses in 1950s era uniforms; station attendants proud that they can answer your questions in english.