Port Changed From Livorno to La Spezia Today; I Pre-Booked Rental Car in Livorno

[moviegal]

Uh oh, am I in trouble now? I booked a cruise last year for a sailing this May with Celebrity with our port of call being Livorno. I love to plan in advance so I booked a rental car last month for pick-up at the port in Livorno. Today, Celebrity changed our port of call from Livorno to La Spezia. Is this a big problem? How far apart are these two ports of call? I tried to look at a map but it's unclear -- I'll contact the rental car agency tomorrow but I just found out and I'm panicked! Somebody, please help calm me down!

[euro cruiser]

La Spezia is about 50 miles or so up the coast from Livorno. If you were planning to drive to Cinque Terre this change of ports is great news. If, instead, you were headed toward hill towns in Tuscany or Florence this will add miles to your journey.

[pete_coach]

Uh oh, am I in trouble now? I booked a cruise last year for a sailing this May with Celebrity with our port of call being Livorno. I love to plan in advance so I booked a rental car last month for pick-up at the port in Livorno. Today, Celebrity changed our port of call from Livorno to La Spezia. Is this a big problem? How far apart are these two ports of call? I tried to look at a map but it's unclear -- I'll contact the rental car agency tomorrow but I just found out and I'm panicked! Somebody, please help calm me down!

OK, calm down :)

Just call or email the rental agency and explain your situation. they will gladly make changes to your reservation. No big deal, changes happen all the time over there (and over here too).

If you are panicked about this, I hope you have driven in Italy before. It is an adventure. Narrow and sometimes very winedy roads, poor street and road signs, very impatient drivers etc (hint, in villages, the steet signs are often high up on corners of buildings). I strongly suggest you ask for a GPS system in the vehicle (make sure it is in engish too) or buy one here and get European maps installed. If you buy one here, it can be helpful when walking around cities as well.

[nparmelee]

With a change of port you might want to consider a change of plans. La Spezia is right at the Cinque Terre and no car rental would be needed. What were you going to do from Livorno?

[Eileen G]

I would be very happy with the change. Our second time to Livorno we took the train for 2 hours to get to La Spezia to visit Cinque Terre.

[moviegal]

Thanks for the replies! We aren't really interested in Cinque Terre. We were going to rent a car and just explore the countryside to "see what we see." We are adventurous like that (but I get upset about the little things, ha ha). It just stinks because I planned so far in advance and of course the rental car deposit is nonrefundable. Grrrrr. Now there's just more work to do to try to find a car in La Spezia.

[happier]

With a change of port you might want to consider a change of plans. La Spezia is right at the Cinque Terre and no car rental would be needed. What were you going to do from Livorno?

hi, nparmalee

if no car needed, how would you "do" the Cinque Terra?

is it easy to walk? how far between towns?

what about going by boat? are the boats easily managed? do you need to make reservations?

can this area be done in a day?

[BKFlowerMound]

hi, nparmalee

if no car needed, how would you "do" the Cinque Terra?

is it easy to walk? how far between towns?

what about going by boat? are the boats easily managed? do you need to make reservations?

can this area be done in a day?

 

You take the train from La Spezia to the Cinque Terre. The Cinque Terre are 5 towns. The first one is about a 10 minute train ride from La Spezia. You can either walk between the towns or take the train. There is a special train pass that covers hopping on and the train and is an admission to the trails between the towns. The walking distance from town 1 (Riomaggiore) to town 2 (Manarola) is about 20 minutes. It's about double that distance to the next town Corniglia. Each town has a train station and you can take the train as well. I would strongly recommend walking from town 1 to town 2.

 

It's a very beautiful area and well worth it.