Florence to Cinque Terre

Chrissie

New member
Hello,
We are planning a trip to Italy next month, and originally wanted to travel from Rome (4 nights), to Florence (4 nights) to Venice (2 nights). Not much time but should give us a taste of the country! Someone today recommended a visit to Cinque Terre from Florence. I saw some photos online and love the landscape!

My questions therefore are:
- would it make sense to do a day-trip from Florence to Cinque Terre, or should we spend a night there?
- If we are to spend a night there, can we drive from Florence to CT and leave our rental car there, before heading by train to Venice?

Thanks so much. This forum already has been incredibly useful in other aspects of us planning this trip.

Kind regards
Christina :)
 
Cinque Terre - 5T is a cool place to visit. A day trip is possible and depends on how long of a day. You can take a train from Florence early in the morning ( 7am ish) and get to 5T in about 2.5 hours. When you arrive to the first town Riomaggiore perhaps take train to the farthest town Monterosso. You can hike back to Riomaggiore from town to town( about 5 hours) or hike a little and take train back from any town along the way. Depart 5T around 7pm and be back in Florence after 10pm. If you rent a car, you can drive via Lucca on the way there and pass through Pisa on the way back. I too will be in Florence soon during a quick trip but opposite direction. Getting into Florence from Venice, spend night then have rental car to drive to 5T, spend one night there. Love the idea of hiking from town to town along the coast. Here is a good resource for 5T http://www.cinqueterreonline.com/ Enjoy !
 
Ciao Christina,

Cinque Terre is a beautiful and a day trip is possible although it will be a long day as G650 has said above. Take the early train out of Florence and return late. If you don't want to hike between the towns, just make sure to buy the park pass that includes train travel and use the train between each of the five towns to see all of them.
To check precise train timetables, go to Trenitalia - HomePage

If I understand correctly you're asking whether it is possible to drop off your car rental at the Cinque Terre? Whether you can do that or not depends whether there are agencies to drop off the car at in one of the towns (I doubt it will be in any of the five towns, more likely in La Spezia or Genova though). So you could drive there, drop off your luggage at the hotel, then drive back to drop off the car nearby and get back to your hotel by train.

It would make sense to continue on to Venice from Cinque Terre rather than have to return to Florence. So whether you drop off the car in Florence or near Cinque Terre, consider that you can take the train to Cinque Terre (with all of your luggage), spend the night there and then continue on to Venice.

The days will fly by but whatever you decide, make sure to not tire yourself completely out and enjoy each and every place you end up at ! :)
 
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