I cannot tell you how when travelling through Italy, train is by far the easiest and quickest form of transport. Our overall route of this particular trip when we visited Cinque Terre, took us from London via France and Spain to finally Croatia by train with most of our time being spent in Italy. While visiting Cinque Terre we were based between Pisa/ Florence which , being in the middle of the Tuscan countryside, meant it was naturally the smartest move to have a car. However when visiting these five little treasures, train is most certainly the way forward.

If coming from Pisa or Florence, the easiest way to get to Cinque Terre is by train with the closest main station being La Spezia. These trains leave every 40 mins and regional trains stop on all 5 villages of Cinque Terre. Leaving from la Spezia, the first town you meet is Riomaggiore, then Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, Monterosso.

La Spezia – Riomaggiore 9 minutes

Riomaggiore – Manarola 2 minutes

Manarola – Corniglia 4 minutes

Corniglia – Vernazza 5 minutes

Vernazza – Monterosso 5 minutes

Monterosso – Levanto 5 minutes

Train travel in Italy require validating your ticket  with the automats before getting on the train. Regional tickets can be used any time so it will only be valid if the machine stamps the actual date on it unless its booked in advance with a specific date on it. You can find the machines to validate your tickets on the train platform (they’re old skool and yellow). Just slide the narrow end of your ticket into the slot in the machine and wait until you hear it stamp. If you don’t have a validated ticket you can get a big ass fine unless you’ve got a very pretty smile you can get yourself out of trouble with 😉 . Like in the UK you can let the conductor know on the train however if you forget.

Like most local trains in Italy, it’s very cheap between close stops, for example it is €1.80 between each town of Cinque Terre. However, to save a little bit of money and effort with constantly having to validate your ticket you might want to get a Cinque Terre card which costs €10 for one day or €19 for two days. This is definitely the way to go if you want a bit more freedom, especially if you’re staying later in the evening as the ticket offices at the villages tend to close quite early also.  The card can be both at any station and includes unlimited train travel on the whole Levanto to La Spezia line, as well as access to all hiking paths and some museum entrances.

The train journey itself is quite exciting  ( as long as you don’t mind tunnels) as most of the journey is spent underground through the sea cliffs with now and again AMAZING peek-a-boo views on the sea!! As there are only two platforms in the villages of the Cinque Terre, it is easy to find your way around. If you want to go towards Monterosso (and Levanto), you will have to follow the sign “PER GENOVA”. If you travel towards Riomaggiore (and La Spezia), look for the “PER LA SPEZIA” sign. From the stations, you can usually see the sea which makes orientation even easier. If you are facing the sea, Monterosso, Levanto and Genova are to your right while Riomaggiore and La Spezia are to your left.

All in all, its easy peasy once you get your bearings!! Enjoy!!