We are looking at reserving tickets on a train from Florence to Vernazza in early June. This will require us to change trains in La Spezia. According to Trenitalia, we will only have 5 minutes to change trains in La Spezia. Is that enough time? Is the train station small? What happens if we miss our connecting train? I believe this is either a regional or an IC train.

It's VERY small, so if your train arrives on time, you will have no problem.

Check the schedule for next train from LaSpezia to Vernazza as a back up. Italian trains are notoriously LATE!

Don't worry about missing your train. There are probably several trains each hour from La Spezia to Vernazza. You could check the schedule at trenitalia.com (click on English at the top of the page). You could even print out the schedule for later trains that you could take if you don't make your connection.

"Great minds" DeeDee. I think we were typing our replies at the same time.

We did the same thing in April and made the train. You will be fine!

Do be aware there are a couple stops in La Spezia (depending upon train you'll be on), so make sure that you disembark at LA SPEZIA CENTRALE.

Not to plan for the worst...but what happens if we do miss our connecting train? Do we need to do anything with our tickets (i.e. revalidate, have another ticket printed from the machine, etc.)?