I'll be travelling from Florence to Manarola in Cinque Terre in the last week of September, and from what i gather travelling by rail is my best bet.

Trenitalia's webpage states that the rail trip from Florence to Manarola (through Pisa and La Spezia) costs €20,70 for travel by 2nd class. Is this the normal price to pay, or am i better off buying the tickets when i arrive in Florence?

Thanks all.

It is a regional train and you cannot book online nor get a mini fare---that price would be normal.

My husband and I did this in 2008. We bought our tickets at the rail station in Florence for Pisa. We spent about 2 hrs. in Pisa just to see the Leaning Tower. We had our bags stored at the train station for a small fee (don't remember exactly how much). We walked to the Leaning Tower and back to the station, which was about 3/4 of a mile, more or less. Back at the Pisa station, we bought tickets for La Sprezia. There you can buy your Cinque Terre Parks card which you will need to hike the trails and it gives you unlimited train travel (from La Sprezia on to all the villages) for the days the card covers. By the way, all the train tickets we bought while in Italy, were sold to us by English-speaking ticket staff, which might make it less anxiety-provoking.

The price of 20,70€ is for the route that includes an ES train for one leg of the journey.

For example, the train that departs at 09:28:
Florence-Pisa: R train (32 minute wait at Pisa)
Pisa-La Spezia: ES train (9 minute wait at La Spezia)
La Spezia-Manarola: R train
Length of journey: 02:43

You can follow the same route as above at 11:28 and take a few minutes longer, but since all the trains are R trains and make better connections, the cost for 2nd class is only 10,20€.

You can take fewer trains that take almost the same amount of time, though they make more stops, and cost only 10,20€.

For example, the train that departs at 10:53:
Florence-Sarzana: R train (7 minute wait at Sarzana)
Sarzana-Manarola: R train
Length of journey: 2:44
However, if you miss the connection, you'll have few hours to wait for the next train.

It is easy to buy your tickets in a machine at the terminals. They have English as an option.

When you leave your bags at the Pisa train station, give yourself plenty of time to wait in line to get your bags back. This is such a popular stop that more than usual will be leaving bags.

seat61.com have done the route hopping off at pisa

on regional trains for 10 euros when there last

When you figure shipping costs almost always more

to book online so I just hop on after I buy regional

tickets... be sure to stamp(convalidate) them as required