Is a day trip to Cinque Terre, really only 1-3 towns, feasible from Genoa using public transportation? We really don't want to spend more than half the day on the train. Time frame is early September. Thanks.

Its about 1.5-2 hours from Genoa to Monterosso on the train (depends on which train you get - look for ICplus or regional trains with fewer stops). You can train or ferry between towns on the Cinque Terre. So yes, its feasible in a day. You could probably visit all five towns if you aren't hiking.

You can look up train schedules here: http://www.trenitalia.it/en/index.html

Sure -- with the caveat that Italian trains, especially along that line, are not as punctual as Swiss trains.

If you would like to see a very pretty, colorful, far less touristed and part of Liguria with spectacular views and hikes, check out Camogli and San Rocco di Camogli, the hill town above it. Boats from Camogli there depart to San Fruttoso and Portofino.

That's a 35 minute train ride from Genova.

marking for future reference - the CT can be awfully crowded! The Camogli option sounds very pleasant.

Hiking in the national park of the Monte Portofino is a joy, and even if one doesn't go in for hikes on trails, it is very simple to enjoy fantastic views by taking a 10-minute bus ride from Camogli to the village of San Rocco above it. Here's a picture:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Im...di_Camogli.jpg

Here's a map of some hikes plus some pictures of the view from where the bus leaves you:

http://tinyurl.com/monteportofino

You can either return to Camogli by bus or simply take a 20 minute walk downstairs. Or you can take a different set of stairs and get a boat to take you either back to Camogli, or onto Portofino, or the abbey of San Fruttuoso for lunch or a swim:

http://k43.pbase.com/g3/81/588981/2/...5.loxv83bF.jpg

But don't tell anybody.

This is oh, so easy to do.

We visited Genoa one day while staying in Monterosso--no problem.

I just returned from a trip to Italy, and Cinque Terre was one of my stops.

You can visit the villages in one day without too much trouble; my advice is to ask for a printed schedule (at the ticket-selling booths). This way you can plan when to be at the station for the next leg of your journey. We found that the train schedule was very exact...one time, a train was delayed by 10 minutes, but they announced it several times.

Enjoy Cinque Terre! It's amazing.

Where does one catch the ferry to each of the villages?
We were there a few years ago and the weather in late Sept. was not good enough for the ferry to run.

Catch the ferry at the harbor of each town that has a harbor and ferry service.

You can also catch boats to the five towns from Portovenere, and I believe from Levanto and maybe even Lerici and La Spezia -- although I am not sure about the last two.

Yes, you can catch boats from La Spezia, and they stop at all five towns.

We spent one day in CT this past May.

We took the water taxi from Levanto, from Genoa Levanto is one stop before Monterosso, to visit the five CT, and went on to Portovenere by same water taxi. Portovenere is really something to see, arriving by water taxi it is a joy to enter the Golfo di Poeti and Lord Byrons cove by water.

Unless you really want to hike, I would say one perfect day in CT is plenty.

Water taxi was 17 Euro for a full day, get on and get off where you please.

It is best to leave Levanto before 11A - earler even better - and get down to Portovenre by 3p so that there is time to see it and get the water taxi back up to Levanto.

Buon Viaggio!

ttt

Apologies for hi jacking this mail - does anyone know if you can catch a ferry all the way to Portofino from Portovenere (where we will be staying) and likely costs?

stevelyon -

http://www.navigazionegolfodeipoeti....sorio_2006.pdf

I've taken the ferry from La Spezia to Portovenere, on to the CT towns (link above to schedule). However not familiar with a boat that'll take you all the way to Portofino. May want to email your hotel in Portovenere and they could advise of best transport options to get there.

I know you can take a ferry from Portofino to Rapallo, but I have only read online that from there it is also possible to connect with a ferry to Portovenere (perhaps with a switch in Sestri Levante). I have never seen a schedule or prices. I would expect these ferries to be highly seasonal, and subject to cancellations due to bad weather.

Since some of these legs are tourist ferries, I imagine the prices would be touristy, running you up to 20e per leg. But I don't know.

Perhaps the very fastest way to know an answer would be to contact one of the grand hotels in Portofino or Rapallo and ask them for the ferry schedule, or a link to a website.

just to be clear:

I know there is a Portofino-Rapallo ferry.

I believe you would need to switch in Rapallo to another ferry for Portovenere if one exists.

If you are fit enough, try to walk between some of the towns since you can't see much from the train. We hiked between Riomaggiore and Vernazza and then took the train back south. Not an "easy" day trip, but worthwhile. The ferries were not running for some reason, even though it was a beautiful day.

Does anyone know what months the ferries run? I'm trying to find out if they run in late April but the website doesn't specify.
Thanks

Ferries -- big boats that carry lots of passengers and often cars between major towns or islands -- will run on limited schedules in winter.

However, the boats that travel between the five towns of the Cinque Terre obviously try to run as often as possible in the most touristed periods -- pretty much from Easter to the end of October -- but you can't count of them, ever. These are small boats that really have no ability to dock or travel safely with passengers in rough seas.

So you just have to go and see. You can always take the train to the towns if the boats aren't running. If you stay in Portovenere, that will mean a 20 minute bus trip to La Spezia to catch the train.

If you only want to see le Cinque Terre from a boat, there is a risk they will not be running at all when you are there, especially in Spring, when the weather is so variable.