Travelling from Venice to the Cinque Terre towns.
 

Does anyone know if you can travel by train, preferably using the Italy Pass, from Venice to the Cinque Terre towns? Also is one better than the other to stay in? e.g. Manarola, or Riomaggiore? After that we want to go to Florence and once again travel by train.

Does anyone have any insights into staying and travelling in Sicily and Malta?

Lyn

You might want to read this current thread before deciding whether to the area.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ves-worked.cfm

However, when is your trip? You would be better posting your Sicily and Malta questions on separate threads.

You can travel pretty much anywhere in Italy by train. Certainly from Venice to CT and Florence. Check trenitalia.com for times, routes, etc.

I did 5 days in the CT region in July but based in Rapallo which I preferred to staying IN one of the CT towns. Next time I go to the area I will also base in Rapallo but if I had to pick one CT to base in it would be Manarola.

Here's my trip report (scroll down past the France part to get to the Italy report) http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...swiss-alps.cfm

Take a train from Venice to Florence and then another one from Florence to La Spezia. 5 hrs journey. Venice dp 7.25, 9.25, 11.25 .......

Sicily: Take the train between
Messina and Palermo
Messina and Siracusa
Siracusa and Pozzallo
Palermo and Agrigento
Palermo and Segesta
and the bus for all other journeys.

Malta: almost all buses start from Valetta (bus hub for the whole Island).

Yes an Italy Railpass will cover the whole route between Venice and the 5 Terre - you will need to pay 10 euros extra for the mandated seat reservation on the Venice Santa Lucia (SL) to Florence Santa Maria Novella (SMN) but from Florence you take regional trains to Pisa Centrale, change there to regional trains to La Spezia and then the Cinque terre shuttle train to every one of the five villages - some regional trains may continue from La Spezia to Riomaggiore or Monterosso or perhaps the other three but often you must change at La Spezia to the milk train that constantly shuttles between La Spezia and the five villages.

There are a few IC trains Florence direct to La Spezia and if you take one of those you will need to pay a separate 5 euros (I think for IC trains) for the mandated seat reservation fee. Regional trains you just hop on with your pass - nothing else to do.

For lots of great info on Italian trains check out these IMO fine sites - www.budgteteuropetravel.com; www.seat61.com and www.ricksteves.com.

Like neckervd says trains are useful to get around Sicily - I did it not long ago to just about any place you want to go - these are mainly regional trains you can just hop on. Sometimes buses are better on some routes.

If you are planning to do some hiking in Cinque Terre, then don't miss my suggestions!
http://www.nomadtravellers.com/backp...its-rural-side

But keep in mind that some recent developments have closed some key trails as I read on other threads.

Keep the weather in mind when planning what to do in the 5 Terre - trails can get muddy in wet weather - but that does not make the 5 Terre a complete washout - trains trundle between each of the five villages (well way below Corniglia - perhced hi above gthe sea - a minibus meets trains at the seaside station to take folks up there - folks wanting a downhill walk may take the train/bus to Corniglia, a high point it seems -boats also ply the towns in season and are a nice way to go - trains here are largely in tunnels.

Unless you are traveling a lot or long distances each travel day, it's often cheaper to just buy point-to-point tickets. For example, you can travel La Spezia to Florence for about 16€. You can't get a pass for that little per day. You also have to factor in mandatory seats on the faster trains in Italy that passes don't cover (10€ each).

Florence to Sicily would be a very long day by train. You might look at budget flights to either Sicily or Malta (if both are on your itinerary). It might be most economical to fly from Venice to Malta or Sicily (ferry between those two) and then fly back to either Pisa (close to CT and Florence) or to Florence depending on your departure flight for home.

5Terre - Sicily:
take either the Genoa - Palermo or the Livorno - Palermo ferry
or
fly with http://www.ryanair.com/
Genoa - Trapani
Pisa - Palermo

Venice - Sicily:
fly with http://www.volotea.com/it to either Catania or Palermo
fly with http://www.ryanair.com/ from Treviso to either Palermo or Trapani

5Terre - Malta:
fly with http://www.ryanair.com/
Pisa - Malta

Venice - Malta:
fly with http://www.ryanair.com/ from Treviso to Malta

I think Alitalia is an option for flights also from some cities.

Grand Navi is the overnight ferry from Genoa to Palermo.

http://www.gnv.it/en/ferries-destinations/genoa.html

depends on how many days you will be suing the train and yes needs to have some longer distances and IF you wish to have flexibility to chose which trains you will be taking once you are there - Italy Pass can be very cheap per day the more days you buy on them - a 10-day saver pass costs $387 or about $40/day or about 29 euros a day - for long days a great deal and then you would buy the cheap fares by themselves or if you have a day left over on the pass use it.

<<depends on how many days you will be suing the train>>

hopefully lawsuits take less time in Italy than in the US! ;)

Hi Lyn - I know you read my report (the first link posted above) so I thought I'd add to it a bit to answer a couple of your questions. We absolutely loved being in the midst of CT and loved Manarola! We didn't go to Rapallo though so can't tell you not to stay there. The way I would think about it is where do you want to spend most of your time? If it's hiking and taking the ferry and being in a cute CT town, Manarola is the place to go. If you want to spend more time exploring the region outside of CT like the Portofino area then maybe you should consider Rapallo.

For us, we absolutely made the right choice to choose Manarola. It wasn't overly touristy or constantly packed with people like Vernazza. If you stay in the area at the top of the cliff, there were never people up there - no tourists swarming around at all. It wasn't dead at night like Riomaggiore. (although to be fair, we were only there one evening). It wasn't hard to get to like Corniglia with its 400 steps from the train station. It had several excellent restaurants.

As long as there are trails open, you'll be able to get around. The tourist bureau (I mentioned the one at the Manarola train station, but I'm sure there are many others) will tell you which ones to go on and can give you hiking maps.

The trails do not come cheap - I just wanted to do this Viale d'Amour trail between Riomaggiore and Manarole - the sweet flat short one but to get on any trail cost about 10 euros for a day pass - maybe the pass was longer and maybe the sell portions but it kept me off the trail that January day when I did not want to do the more rugged ones.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eric59ch/7914665046/

That trail between Riomaggiore and Manarola is actually closed now, as is the coastal trail between Manarola and Corniglia. They have been repaired and are awaiting certification to be reopened.

To hike from from Manarola to Corniglia now, you have to go through Volastra, but can take a bus to get up the hill if you want. This trail doesn't cost anything, but you do have to pay to hike the Corniglia to Vernazza trail. It's 6 Euros without any sort of pass. I think we payed 12 Euros for a trail and unlimited train pass, but that was for a weekend day - weekday passes are cheaper.

thanks for that update that the Viale d'Amour is closed - too bad because it was one trail anybody of any condition practically could do.

Many thanks everybody for your replies. Haven't been able to check until now as we've been away for a few weeks caravanning. But now need to spend time organising our holiday which has now been bumped up to May instead of September.

We just came back and took the train from Venice to Levanto.We booked in advance and it was 25 Euros.

We stayed in Levanto as it was less expensive and less touristy. We were glad of our decision.
We took the boat from Levanto to the towns in the morning and back at night.
You can also do day trips via train.
Seeing it from the water was wonderful.
We also did a biking day from Levanto on the old railroad tracks that are now a walking/biking trail which was great.

live422day - what route by train did you take? Via Genoa or via Florence or other route? Thanks.

Via Genoa. I booked it on line with Treniatalia
One tip I will give you, I found out the hard way..... When you buy a ticket in Italy that has the car number, seat number etc you are fine to just get on the train.

If you buy a ticket, as we did, from Trieste to Venice that was good for any train, you need to stamp it at the station before getting on.

If you dont validate it you get a fine. A big one. We did our first day in Italy and even though I told the fellow I bought it from that I didnt understand the ticket as it did not have a seat number or car number on it, he never told me that I needed to validate it. I was choked to say the least.