Thank you to Walter from this forum, I am now user friendly on the Italian train web site. www.fs-on-line.com. I guess Venice to Cinque Terre was a stupid idea but its too late to change now. Has anyone taken the train on this route? Is there one route better then another. Venice-Florence-Pisa-La Spezia is all I have so far. <BR>Thank you

Chris <BR> <BR>Check out Venice to Milan to La Spezia. Maybe someone else knows a better route?

Chris, <BR>Check out the following web site; leave it to the Germans to have the most efficient site on the web for train routes. Have fun, Gene Wright <BR>http://bahn.hafas.de/bin/query.exe/en

There is one daily train (at 10am)from Venice to the Cinque Terre that involves NO changes of train. It takes goes via Milan and takes about 6 hours. <BR> <BR>

Chris: <BR> <BR>I've traveled between Venice & La Spezia (on my Oct trip to Italy) --- and that's about most of the way to the CT. It's a long haul no matter how you stack it (around 6-7 hrs travel time). <BR> <BR>You didn't identify which of the Cinque Terre towns you'll be going to. As Rich (above) said, there's an InterCity (IC) which goes from Venice to Monterosso (lvs @ 10:00 am & arrives 15:57 p). When you're traveling that long & on an IC train, it's worth the extra 25000 lire to purchase a 1st class ticket. <BR> <BR>In addition to the 10 am train, I also saw one that departs later in the day leaving Venice @ 15:00 (3:00 pm), however doesn't arrive in Monterosso until 21:04 (9:04 pm). OR if you're an early riser, there's a train leaving Venice at 5:50 am -- change in Milan & arrive in Monterosso at 11:57 am. <BR>Once in Monteross, if you need to "backtrack" the other CT towns are very close & reachable via a local train (usually either a "D" (diretto) or an "R" (regional) -- they're both slow pokey trains, so one is as good as other. Fortunately the CT towns are only about 6 to 10 minutes apart from one another. <BR> <BR>Alternatively, what I did was to break up my day with a "pitstop" in Florence. I took the early morning EuroStar (ES) that left Venice at 6:28 am and arrived in Florence (Firenze) at 9:18 am. Checked my luggage at the 'Deposito Baglio' in Florence train station --- spent several hrs in Florence. Then returned to train station for the 15:00 (3:00 pm) train that went to Pisa Centrale -- train change, and from Pisa Centrale to La Spezia. Arrived in La Spezia at 17:12 (5:12 pm). <BR> <BR>FYI --- all these times are predicated on a check of Apr 10 (I just plucked a date out of the air). Times may vary as to your exact date (if on a weekend vs. weekday). <BR> <BR>

We took the train from Venice-Milan-Genoa - LaSpezia, then changed to the local train which runs frequently. I think the total train time was about five hours. <BR>P.S&gt; By the waterfront in Vernazza there is a restaurant that makes seafood spaghetti to die for...