Florence or Cinque Terre advice?

[cruisingallover]

Try romeinlimo. I was just looking at their website, I think it was 550 Euros for 2 people.

 

That price is outrageous. Either rent a car or take the train unless you have tons of $$$

[Hlitner]

That price is outrageous. Either rent a car or take the train unless you have tons of $$$

 

We are happy to see somebody point out this fact. Many on CC will tell you to take private tours/cars but they seldom explain that it usually costs over $500 a day. A one day rental car would cost you about $100 - $130 (this is our preferred method of going from Livorno to Cinque Terre/ Riomaggiore. The train schedule is not that advantageous and means you have to rush to the Livorno train station (25 Euros by taxi) and get the train to La Spezia and then on to Riomaggiore The drive takes about 1:20 each way and there is paid parking at Riomaggiore and also some free parking on the steep road that runs down into the town. There is no need for a guide in this area as it is very tourist friendly. A decent guide book (many like the Rick Steves series) will be more then enough help. Our suggestions is to walk between the first two villages (the Lovers Walk) and then use the train and/or ferries to go to additional villages. By the way, although we do not normally like cruise line excursions, some of the ships have pretty reasonable tour prices to go to Cinque Terre....especially if its only for two people.

 

Hank

[stormyitaly]

Puglia is also AMAZING! I am not sure why Americans don't go there. I am just glad they dont! That being said, I am an American and proud of it. I just like being there with only Italians :)

[vadell]

If I were going to La Spezia would not miss opportunity to visit Cinque Terre althoughthe villages were busy when we visited the walk was quiet and we had a fabulous lobster spaghetti on route.

[newcruisers04]

We are happy to see somebody point out this fact. Many on CC will tell you to take private tours/cars but they seldom explain that it usually costs over $500 a day. A one day rental car would cost you about $100 - $130 (this is our preferred method of going from Livorno to Cinque Terre/ Riomaggiore. The train schedule is not that advantageous and means you have to rush to the Livorno train station (25 Euros by taxi) and get the train to La Spezia and then on to Riomaggiore The drive takes about 1:20 each way and there is paid parking at Riomaggiore and also some free parking on the steep road that runs down into the town. There is no need for a guide in this area as it is very tourist friendly. A decent guide book (many like the Rick Steves series) will be more then enough help. Our suggestions is to walk between the first two villages (the Lovers Walk) and then use the train and/or ferries to go to additional villages. By the way, although we do not normally like cruise line excursions, some of the ships have pretty reasonable tour prices to go to Cinque Terre....especially if its only for two people.

 

Hank

 

Can you give us some direction for reading materials on the drive and any other info required to rent a car in Livorno and drive to the area of the first village. We will be on a back to back cruise in the fall of 2011 and did this specifically so we would have two days in most of the ports of Italy so we wouldnt run ourselves ragged. I like the idea of renting a car and taking a leisurely drive and do some walking to really see the villages. I havent seen very many posts of ppl. renting a car to drive the Amalfi coast (on another day of course), what are your thoughts on that..the road sounds sort of "adventuresome"?? :-)

thanks for any advice.

[Hlitner]

Can you give us some direction for reading materials on the drive and any other info required to rent a car in Livorno and drive to the area of the first village. We will be on a back to back cruise in the fall of 2011 and did this specifically so we would have two days in most of the ports of Italy so we wouldnt run ourselves ragged. I like the idea of renting a car and taking a leisurely drive and do some walking to really see the villages. I havent seen very many posts of ppl. renting a car to drive the Amalfi coast (on another day of course), what are your thoughts on that..the road sounds sort of "adventuresome"?? :-)

thanks for any advice.

 

Well, we would not call driving from Livorno to Riomaggiore a leisurly drive. The reality is that until you get to La Spezia you are on major 4 lane Autostrade (like interstate highways) and once you get to La Spezia and navigate through the town the drive does finally get interesing on the final miles which is a very windy 2 lane road. As we have mentioned in other posts, Hertz does currently have a deal where they will deliver a rental car to the pier, but they do charge a premium (I think its about $150 for the car) and you are talking about small cars with manual transmissions. There are cheaper rental car places in the port, but it can be difficult getting from the ship to those rental car companies since they are located on the other side of the port near the main entrance. The Livorno Port authority is, in my opinion, a sorry excuse for a port authority and does nothing to make things easier for cruisers! However, we do like getting a car when we want to go to Riomaggiore since its faster then trying to deal with the train and gives us more time in Cinque Terre.

 

As to renting a car for the Amalfi Coast, we do not recommend that anyone rent a car in downtown Naples unless they have some experience driving in Italy. When driving on the Amalfi Coast (we have done this quite often while we vacation on the coast) the biggest problem is parking in Positano. You can actually see cars parked along the Amalfi Drive more then a mile from the entrance to Positano and the few parking lots in the town are very very expensive and often full. The last time we drove into the town of Amalfi we waited in a queue for 45 min to get a parking spot in the main parking lot (located on a pier). In fact, when we stay in Praiano (5 miles from Positatno) we usually take the local Orange Bus into Positano so we do not have to deal with the parking hassles. To be very blunt, as often as we have driven in Italy (more then 10,000 miles throughout the country) we do not rent a car when we are in Naples for a port day. That being said, if you are really adventuress and want to do this then certainly pay a few dollars extra and get a GPS unit to help get you through the Sorrento area and later back to the rental car dealer.

 

Hank

[newcruisers04]

Good thing we have more than a year to plan things for this cruise. Since it will be only the two of us, might be best for us to think about a shore excursion from the ship, or since we are on the roll call, wait and see if anyone else tries to get a group together, thus lowering the price per person, hopefully.

thanks so much for your advice and information

 

Lori

[Dushi]

There is so much in Firenze that it deserves to be seen on its own rather than on a rushed day trip (spent a week there with my sister and even had time for day trips to Pisa, Sienna and San Gimignano). In 2007, we took the ship's excursion from Livorno to Cinque Terre and absolutely loved it despite the crowds. This year, since we'll also be on DCL's Magic and docking at La Spezia, I am looking forward to seeing CT again.

 

My question is can we do CT on our own from La Spezia or should we subject ourselves to the ship's excursion?

[Eileen G]

We have done CT on our own twice. The first time we went from Livorno which was quite a trek. The second from La Spezia was much easier. Here is the part of my trip report on CT from La Spezia:

We were in La Spezia and had to tender to down town. Tendering was very easy and we walked a few blocks along the waterfront to the IT from the tender drop off. We were given a map and told to walk down the pedestrian street to the train station about 15 minutes. We found the parks office in the train station along track 1 and purchased our CT pass for 8.50 which includes the train and hiking. On our first visit to Cinque Terre we hiked between Riomaggori and Cornigila so this time we were planning to hike from Cornigila to Vernazza. We took the 10:07 train to Corniglia. The 10:00 train only stops at Riomaggori and Montarossa. We walked around Cornigila before taking the trail to Vernazza. Part of the trail right out of Cornigila had been badly burned recently. There are a lot of ups and downs to this section of the trail. It took us 2 hours with frequent stops. We had lunch in Vernazza and went for a swim. We took the train back to Manarola so we could walk the Via Del Amore again. When we reached Riomaggori we got a gelato while we waited for the train back to La Spezia. It was a nice walk back to the tender boats through the pedestrian street.

[ehogan]

we are currently in Venice after spending 7 days in Florence and 3 days in the Cinque Terre. We did the hike from Monterossa to Vernazza and have to say while difficult (we are in our 60s) it was one of the most amazing things we have ever done and the view on approaching Vernazza has to be one of the most beautiful in the world.

 

We spent so much time in Florence because we previously spent one day in Florence (actually 5 hours out of a cruise ship docking in Livorno) and hated it. So we returned to give it another chance. Florence was filled with interesting things to see, however I think to truly appreciate it you need to be very interested in fine art and with the time you have available you cannot do it justice.

 

i would vote for the Cinque Terre - even if you do not do the hike, you can take the train from village to village and really enjoy it.

[GSPLover]

There is so much in Firenze that it deserves to be seen on its own rather than on a rushed day trip (spent a week there with my sister and even had time for day trips to Pisa, Sienna and San Gimignano). In 2007, we took the ship's excursion from Livorno to Cinque Terre and absolutely loved it despite the crowds. This year, since we'll also be on DCL's Magic and docking at La Spezia, I am looking forward to seeing CT again.

 

My question is can we do CT on our own from La Spezia or should we subject ourselves to the ship's excursion?

 

CT is a snap on your own from La Spezia. Less than 15 min by train. You don't need/want a guide or ships excursion (unless you have mobility problems.)

[missmandygirl]

Eileen G, we are docking in Livorno, then want to go to Cinque Terre for the day. You mention in your post that it was quite a trek to get there from Livorno, can you tell me how you went about all of that?

 

Thanks for your help!:)

[Eileen G]

Eileen G, we are docking in Livorno, then want to go to Cinque Terre for the day. You mention in your post that it was quite a trek to get there from Livorno, can you tell me how you went about all of that?

 

Thanks for your help!:)

 

We used GSPLovers directions.

 

http://www.ftroute.com/LIV_CinqueTerre.htm

 

These worked well. We had a 8PM departure and I don't think I would try it with a 7PM departure. All the trains in the afternoon were late. The direct train we planned to take was canceled and we just made the Pisa train by seconds. As it was we made it back to the ship at 6:30 witch was fine with the 8 departure but cutting it way to close for 7.

[Hlitner]

We have never liked using the train for CT because the morning connections are very tight and never liked the schedule. When we want to go to CT from Livorno we simply rent a car at the port and drive to Riomaggiore where there is parking. We can usually make the drive in about 1:20 which means if we get our car by 8am we are in Riomaggiore by 9:30. We generally leave CT around 3:30 to drive back to Livorno, but on our last trip we left at 2 so we could take our friends (we had another couple with us who were on their first visit) so we could make a quick stop in Pisa.

 

Hank

[FKGirl]

We were in the Cinque Terre last summer and it was wonderful. I would not bother with only 4 hours in Florence (although it is one of my favorite cities on earth, and I am going for one night in June, but just to visit friends...) Anyway, CT is very easy to do on your own.

You can hike the entire 5 towns (Monterosso to Vernazaa is BY FAR the hardest and longest leg) in a few hours and stop for lunch and gelatos along the way.

 

Definitely recommend Al Pozzo and Ciak in Monterosso for a great meal!

 

The CT is worth a visit. It is hard not to enjoy yourself while in someplace so beautiful.