We're planning on renting a car in Florence, driving to somewhere near Cinque Terre, then park near a railroad station somewhere for the 2 nights we'll be spending in Cinque Terre. The question is park where? What would be the most convenient town/location? I know we can train easily to Cinque Terre from Florence, but since I'll have a car for the week after Cinque Terre, it's costing me only $50 more to keep the car for two extra days.

Monterosso and Riomaggiore are the only towns cars are allowed into. The other three, though can be accessed by car i believe if you have accommodations but not sure.

We drove to Riomaggiore the first time we went to the Cinque Terre. I do not think I will ever do it again. Not only is the road very narrow and winding up the cliffs but finding a place to park was almost impossible. I am going back to Cinque Terra the end of this month but this time, I am taking the train from Florence to La Spezia and getting the Cinque Terra train from there. You might want to drive to La Spezia from Florence and then take the train to C.T. or even just take the train from Florence and pick up the car after your two days in Cinque Terra. I have no idea what the parking is like at the Train station in La Spezia. Maybe someone else can help you with better information about that. Good luck. Have a great trip whatever you decide to do.

I agree with previous poster that it would be better to take the train to La Spezia and then the CT train and pick up your car afterwards. When we spent a week in the Vernazza, we took the train. There was parking above Vernazza, quite a hike down. We picked up a car the day before we left as we wanted to see a village near Lucca not easily accessible by public transportation. When we returned late that evening, the road down from the highway was winding, narrow and dark. The we had to park in the lot and hike down to our room. The next day we carried our bags up to the town gate and BIL was allowed to drive down that far to pick up sister and me and our bags. Even town residents in Vernazza had to park outside the gate in a special lot.

We drove to Cinque Terre in the summer of 2005 and stayed in Monterosso. I believe there is a huge parking lot there but you may have to walk a little bit to your hotel depends on its location. As for ourselves, we were so lucky to find a parking spot right outside the pedestrian zone on the opposite end of the harbor which was about 50m from our hotel. But we were simply lucky that time.

The hotel Punta Mesco is in the new town of Monterosso and has parking at the hotel, if you are still considering driving. Diego at the hotel speaks English, so you can enquire by phone if you wish.
http://www.hotelpuntamesco.it/english/camere.html

So maybe parking at La Spezia is a good idea? Does anyone know what the parking is like there?

We parked our car in the secure lot by the water in Monterosso. The hotel paid for a cab to take us from the lot to the hotel.

My husband and I drove to CT on a whim last November. The first night we stayed in La Spezia and it was harder to find parking there than in CT. We found Hotel Due Gemelli the next night (www.duegemelli.it) a couple miles outside Riomaggiore. They have a parking lot at the hotel and will give you a ticket to park in the Manarola lot for free. Our room was pretty large and had a balcony facing the water for about 80 euro. View of water, but no colorful bldgs. Very nice hosts.