We will be traveling to Cinque Terre for 3 nights late April. From there we will be heading to Venice for 2 nights before Rome for our final 3 nights. What is the fastest route to travel from the Levanto / Cinque Terre are to Venice? How long is the train? Does Ryan Air or another airline fly from Genova to Venice?
Any advice greatly appreciated.

Your questions can be answered by going to:

1. trenitalia.com
2. ryanair.com
3. whichbudget.com
Have a nice trip, Mike

Subsituting Florence or Siena for Venice will save you at least 6 hours of travel time--no small factor in a tight itinerary.

We left Levanto mid-morning and took the train to Milan, changed there as I recall and arrived at dusk in Venice. We arranged this in Levanto at a local travel agent (for free!) when we were there, but as "barbmike" suggested, go the the trenitalia site and check out the schedules and prices.

I really liked Levanto, by the way, but I think I'd take a night from the CT and add it to Venice or Rome. And the wise bobthenavigator is right as usual--you may be spending big chunks of time on two different days just on transportation...have you looked into flying Venice-Rome?

The reference library of a city near you may have the Thomas Cook European rail Timetable. Tables 610 and 90 show your connections.

Sestri Levante 0818, Genoa Piazza Principe 0908 to 1106, Milan Central 1250 to 1305, Venice Santa Lucia 1608
Sestri Levante 1037, Genoa Brignole 1138 to 1210, Piazza Principe 1216 to 1306, Milan Central 1450 to 1505, Venice Santa Lucia 1808
Sestri Levante 1501, Genoa Piazza Principe 1616 to 1706, Milan Central 1850 to 1905, Venice Santa Lucia 2208
Sestri Levante 2228, Genoa Piazza Principe 2319 to 0031, Venice Santa Lucia 0736

The day trains Genoa, Milan, Venice have buffet cars, and the night train has sleepers and couchettes, but an unpleasant wait at Genoa.

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