La Spezia? Anything to do within a short drive?

[skiiergirl]

On 2/20/2023 at 5:21 AM, little britain said:

Portovenere. 
The bus line to Portovenere is the 11/P (duration: about 30 minutes, cost 3 euros). One bus every 10-30 minutes.

just walk across towards the funky church opposite the cruise terminal. Bus stop 🚏 is by the colonnades. Get your tickets from the tabacchi on your right as you look at the colonnade ( green awning I think) 

 

On 2/20/2023 at 7:26 PM, Giantfan13 said:

Thanks so much. I see it all now. From these tables, it looks like the train back to LaSpezia is 5 PM and that would be cutting it awful close. I will wait until the 2023 times come out.

 

Thanks so much once again.

 

Cheers

Len

 

On 2/21/2023 at 10:06 AM, little britain said:

The pasta curtains are outside a little shop in portovenere - I dint see if it was a restaurant as well but it was a bakery 

I love bakeries!!!

On 2/21/2023 at 11:03 AM, cruisemom42 said:

 

Judging by the sign it is a Focacceria -- a place specializing in making focaccia, which originated in Liguria area.

I love focaccia!!!

[FBrew]

On 2/8/2023 at 7:30 PM, cruisemom42 said:

 

La Spezia is the best port from which to see the Cinque Terre ("five lands" or villages). Have you been there?  Worth looking into, but can be very crowded in peak season. You can go from village to village by train or by boat.

 

https://www.cinqueterre.eu.com/en/

 

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/articles/planning-visit-cinque-terre

I am interested in taking a tour of Villages of Cinque Terre at the end of October.  Would you consider this to be a strenuous tour?  I am looking at booking with Italy tours.  

 

Thank you,

Phyllis

[cruisemom42]

1 hour ago, FBrew said:

I am interested in taking a tour of Villages of Cinque Terre at the end of October.  Would you consider this to be a strenuous tour?  I am looking at booking with Italy tours.  

 

Thank you,

Phyllis

 

Strenuous is very subjective. There is a wide range of ages and fitness levels on cruises. I would say that the tour will likely involve significant periods of standing and walking, as well as perhaps getting into and out of boats to travel between the villages. If there is free time, exploring the towns on foot will mean uphill and downhill walking, sometimes steep. The tour should state whether any hiking is involved, but most of these tours use the train or boats to go from place to place.

 

 

 

[skiiergirl]

We did the ship’s tour to Cinque Terre last spring. (We went by mini bus not boat.). There was lots of uphill/steep walking.  I did it with medical conditions but I would definitely consider it strenuous. 

[FBrew]

On 3/5/2023 at 4:22 PM, cruisemom42 said:

 

Strenuous is very subjective. There is a wide range of ages and fitness levels on cruises. I would say that the tour will likely involve significant periods of standing and walking, as well as perhaps getting into and out of boats to travel between the villages. If there is free time, exploring the towns on foot will mean uphill and downhill walking, sometimes steep. The tour should state whether any hiking is involved, but most of these tours use the train or boats to go from place to place.

 

 

 

Thank you.  I found a tour that is a minivan and no boats.  I will start doing outside walking next month. I will train for this excursion.

Have a great trip to Japan!! Thanks again.

Phyllis

[sgmn]

On 2/9/2023 at 12:30 AM, cruisemom42 said:

 

La Spezia is the best port from which to see the Cinque Terre ("five lands" or villages). Have you been there?  Worth looking into, but can be very crowded in peak season. You can go from village to village by train or by boat.

 

https://www.cinqueterre.eu.com/en/

 

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/articles/planning-visit-cinque-terre

Hi, can you advise how to get to the trains station from the cruise port (La Spezia) by walking,

trying to decide to do the ferry or the train to the villages

Thanks for your help

 

Regards

Sue 

[euro cruiser]

You will use a shuttle bus from the port (I don't think you are allowed to walk out of the port of La Spezia) to the cruise terminal at Largo Michele Fiorillo.  From there to the ferries is a very short walk (about 550 meters/one-third of a mile).  The train station (La Spezia Centrale) is further away, about 2 km/one and a quarter miles, on foot) but the route is flat and easy to walk.  There are also public buses and very expensive taxis if you don't want to/cannot walk. 

 

The trains are usually wildly overcrowded, but they run more frequently than the ferries and they get there much faster.  On the other hand, the ferries offer a beautiful view.  Why not travel one way by ferry and the other by train?

[sgmn]

21 hours ago, euro cruiser said:

You will use a shuttle bus from the port (I don't think you are allowed to walk out of the port of La Spezia) to the cruise terminal at Largo Michele Fiorillo.  From there to the ferries is a very short walk (about 550 meters/one-third of a mile).  The train station (La Spezia Centrale) is further away, about 2 km/one and a quarter miles, on foot) but the route is flat and easy to walk.  There are also public buses and very expensive taxis if you don't want to/cannot walk. 

 

The trains are usually wildly overcrowded, but they run more frequently than the ferries and they get there much faster.  On the other hand, the ferries offer a beautiful view.  Why not travel one way by ferry and the other by train?

Thank you, your info is always so helpful 😊 

Excellent suggestion to do one way rail and one way boat 

[Softball20]

Jumping in on this thread.  We will be there next year.  We have an overnight in La Spezia so two days to explore. The next port is Santa Margherita.  I definitely want to walk between the villages of CT, and all of us are good for the walking, etc.  I was thinking that we'd take the train on day 1 which puts us in the middle village and pick a direction from there.  However, I've always wanted to spend time in Lucca, so I'm rethinking.  Maybe it would be better to see Lucca on day of La Spezia, spend day two meandering from the middle village back to La Spezia and then the day in Santa Margherita, to the last two villages and maybe some of Portofino.  It might be a bit ambitious.......   Just starting my research so I'm open to suggestions.

[cruisemom42]

3 hours ago, Softball20 said:

Jumping in on this thread.  We will be there next year.  We have an overnight in La Spezia so two days to explore. The next port is Santa Margherita.  I definitely want to walk between the villages of CT, and all of us are good for the walking, etc.  I was thinking that we'd take the train on day 1 which puts us in the middle village and pick a direction from there.  However, I've always wanted to spend time in Lucca, so I'm rethinking.  Maybe it would be better to see Lucca on day of La Spezia, spend day two meandering from the middle village back to La Spezia and then the day in Santa Margherita, to the last two villages and maybe some of Portofino.  It might be a bit ambitious.......   Just starting my research so I'm open to suggestions.

 

I'm not sure if I'm following you exactly, but if I understand correctly what you're thinking, I would suggest that you do the Cinque Terre villages on your first day at La Spezia, as you will be under no pressure to get back to the ship. Lucca is fairly straightforward by train so I would think you can do it on Day 2 and have enough time. Even though the train is about an hour and 15 minutes, give or take (you have to change trains so it varies slightly), Lucca can be handily done in a good half day and there are plenty of trains throughout the morning and afternoon.

 

Then I would focus on seeing Santa Margherita, Portofino, and maybe Rapallo on your day in Liguria.

 

I think you'll find a day of the Cinque Terre will provide a good sense of the villages, even if you don't get to them all. You may also find that a day is enough if you have to fight the normal high season crowds. 😱

 

[Softball20]

11 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

I'm not sure if I'm following you exactly, but if I understand correctly what you're thinking, I would suggest that you do the Cinque Terre villages on your first day at La Spezia, as you will be under no pressure to get back to the ship. Lucca is fairly straightforward by train so I would think you can do it on Day 2 and have enough time. Even though the train is about an hour and 15 minutes, give or take (you have to change trains so it varies slightly), Lucca can be handily done in a good half day and there are plenty of trains throughout the morning and afternoon.

 

Then I would focus on seeing Santa Margherita, Portofino, and maybe Rapallo on your day in Liguria.

 

I think you'll find a day of the Cinque Terre will provide a good sense of the villages, even if you don't get to them all. You may also find that a day is enough if you have to fight the normal high season crowds. 😱

 

Thanks! That does make a good deal of sense.  I'm sure it will be busy/crowded - which I get living in a tourist destination, LOL.  I would like to fit a bit of Porto Venere in there, as well, but I'm not sure when.  Is that doable on the same day with Lucca?  Seems like a lot given that they are in different directions. 

[cruisemom42]

3 hours ago, Softball20 said:

Thanks! That does make a good deal of sense.  I'm sure it will be busy/crowded - which I get living in a tourist destination, LOL.  I would like to fit a bit of Porto Venere in there, as well, but I'm not sure when.  Is that doable on the same day with Lucca?  Seems like a lot given that they are in different directions. 

 

I don't think I'd try to do it with Lucca.

 

Sometimes we have to make choices on cruises with limited time... I think you will see plenty of the charms of seaside costal Italian towns if you visit the Cinque Terre and a couple of the Ligurian villages (Santa Margherita, Portofino, etc.)

 

Lucca will provide something nice and different to that.

 

[sgmn]

Returning to report on our trip to La Spezia last month. 

We were in two minds to see the villages by boat or train, in the end we decided on the train. 

It was a 30 min brisk uphill walk to the train station. We asked a lady in the port the way and she pointed out the best way, but it was pretty simple and with walking Google maps on a smart phone you can't go wrong

 

On the way we passed the boats offering the hop on hop off boat trips to the villages, just a few minutes walk from the port.

 

 

Unfortunately it was raining pretty hard and because of the bad weather the rail timetable was out the window and when we eventually got to the front of the very big queue at the rail station we were told the next train might be an hour, maybe two, maybe not at all. 

We decided to buy a one stop ticket for €5 and go to one of the furthest villages and maybe come back by boat. The one stop tickets can be bought from the tobacconists on the station (no queue).   In fact we only had to wait about fifteen minutes before a train pulled in. The platform was packed but we managed to get a seat. Because of the rain the journey was very slow with lots of stops and starts but we got there eventually. 

 

 

Beautiful village and spent a nice hour or so wandering around.  There was a table with a lady selling tickets for the boat with one leaving fairly soon, so we didn’t stay long. We were a bit concerned with all the weather about getting back to our ship before 'all aboard' 

Loved the boat trip back. We stopped at a few villages to pick up/drop off more people and had to change boats at the last stop (50 min stop). 

Loved our day in La Spezia, even with the bad weather and chaos at the train station. 

 

 

Edited June 8, 2023 by sgmn

[sgmn]

On 6/6/2023 at 2:03 PM, Softball20 said:

  I would like to fit a bit of Porto Venere in there, as well, but I'm not sure when.  

Porto Venere was the last stop on the boat trip back, where we changed boats. I thought it looked a lovely stop and could see us just going there if we have another cruise to La Spezia.

The last pic in my post above is Porto Venere 

Edited June 8, 2023 by sgmn

[TeamCan]

On 6/8/2023 at 1:25 AM, sgmn said:

Returning to report on our trip to La Spezia last month. 

We were in two minds to see the villages by boat or train, in the end we decided on the train. 

It was a 30 min brisk uphill walk to the train station. We asked a lady in the port the way and she pointed out the best way, but it was pretty simple and with walking Google maps on a smart phone you can't go wrong

 

On the way we passed the boats offering the hop on hop off boat trips to the villages, just a few minutes walk from the port.

 

 

Unfortunately it was raining pretty hard and because of the bad weather the rail timetable was out the window and when we eventually got to the front of the very big queue at the rail station we were told the next train might be an hour, maybe two, maybe not at all. 

We decided to buy a one stop ticket for €5 and go to one of the furthest villages and maybe come back by boat. The one stop tickets can be bought from the tobacconists on the station (no queue).   In fact we only had to wait about fifteen minutes before a train pulled in. The platform was packed but we managed to get a seat. Because of the rain the journey was very slow with lots of stops and starts but we got there eventually. 

 

 

Beautiful village and spent a nice hour or so wandering around.  There was a table with a lady selling tickets for the boat with one leaving fairly soon, so we didn’t stay long. We were a bit concerned with all the weather about getting back to our ship before 'all aboard' 

Loved the boat trip back. We stopped at a few villages to pick up/drop off more people and had to change boats at the last stop (50 min stop). 

Loved our day in La Spezia, even with the bad weather and chaos at the train station. 

 

 

Thank you for posting your report of your trip. Your pictures are beautiful!  We are planning to see the villages of Cinque Terre by train and hiking late October. We are in port from 8-7pm, so I think we should have enough time to see all 5 villages with train and hiking. We are planning to buy a 1 day Cinque Terre Treno ticket.   I am worried about the weather as well as Oct sees the most rainfall.  Since the trails from Riomaggiore to Manarola to Corniglia will be closed til 2025? we were planning to take the train from La Spezia to Riomaggiore, then to Manarola, then to Corniglia to see the villages. We then want to hike from Corniglia to Vernazza and onto Monterosso.  We would catch the train back to La Spezia from Monterosso.  You mentioned that the "rail timetable was out the window"  because of the heavy rain and bad weather. It never occurred to me that the trains would not run as scheduled... especially the train from Monterosso to La Spezia as we need to get back to the ship!  Are the train timetable schedules weather dependent?  The trains seem to run every 1/2hr (google maps) Were the trails muddy with the heavy rainfall? Is this 1 day itinerary doable? Late October is off season, so the crowds hopefully will be a lot less than in summer. Any advice would be appreciated.  Thank you!

[sgmn]

4 hours ago, TeamCan said:

Thank you for posting your report of your trip. Your pictures are beautiful!  We are planning to see the villages of Cinque Terre by train and hiking late October. We are in port from 8-7pm, so I think we should have enough time to see all 5 villages with train and hiking. We are planning to buy a 1 day Cinque Terre Treno ticket.   I am worried about the weather as well as Oct sees the most rainfall.  Since the trails from Riomaggiore to Manarola to Corniglia will be closed til 2025? we were planning to take the train from La Spezia to Riomaggiore, then to Manarola, then to Corniglia to see the villages. We then want to hike from Corniglia to Vernazza and onto Monterosso.  We would catch the train back to La Spezia from Monterosso.  You mentioned that the "rail timetable was out the window"  because of the heavy rain and bad weather. It never occurred to me that the trains would not run as scheduled... especially the train from Monterosso to La Spezia as we need to get back to the ship!  Are the train timetable schedules weather dependent?  The trains seem to run every 1/2hr (google maps) Were the trails muddy with the heavy rainfall? Is this 1 day itinerary doable? Late October is off season, so the crowds hopefully will be a lot less than in summer. Any advice would be appreciated.  Thank you!

I think we were unlucky with the weather. In fact some parts of Italy have had very bad flooding this year.  We were also going to buy the one day multi stop ticket but was advised by the staff member at the front of the queue that with the train delays it wasn't worth it and she advised the one stop ticket. 

@cruisemom42 may be able to advise more than I can about the frequency of the railways being affected by weather. 

We didn't see (or notice) the trails from the train window so can't comment if they were affected by the rain.

 

I hope you have a super time, I'm looking forward to going back and visiting some of the villages we missed. 

Edited June 17, 2023 by sgmn

[cruisemom42]

4 hours ago, sgmn said:

 

@cruisemom42 may be able to advise more than I can about the frequency of the railways being affected by weather. 

 

Regarding heavy rains -- yes, they can impact rail service. In general Italy doesn't often get the kind of heavy, pounding rains (and in such quantities) that it experienced this spring. Rains like that can cause flooding and things like road and tunnel closures, train delays, etc. 

 

They are more common in the fall. Remember, the major landslide that impacted parts of the Terre Cinque so significantly a few years ago happened in October. But I have also been in Rome during a rainy week in October or November and heard news of tunnels flooding and train delays there as well.

 

Perhaps the best idea is to have a Plan B or workaround in mind, just in case.

[TeamCan]

9 hours ago, sgmn said:

I think we were unlucky with the weather. In fact some parts of Italy have had very bad flooding this year.  We were also going to buy the one day multi stop ticket but was advised by the staff member at the front of the queue that with the train delays it wasn't worth it and she advised the one stop ticket. 

@cruisemom42 may be able to advise more than I can about the frequency of the railways being affected by weather. 

We didn't see (or notice) the trails from the train window so can't comment if they were affected by the rain.

 

I hope you have a super time, I'm looking forward to going back and visiting some of the villages we missed. 

 

4 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

Regarding heavy rains -- yes, they can impact rail service. In general Italy doesn't often get the kind of heavy, pounding rains (and in such quantities) that it experienced this spring. Rains like that can cause flooding and things like road and tunnel closures, train delays, etc. 

 

They are more common in the fall. Remember, the major landslide that impacted parts of the Terre Cinque so significantly a few years ago happened in October. But I have also been in Rome during a rainy week in October or November and heard news of tunnels flooding and train delays there as well.

 

Perhaps the best idea is to have a Plan B or workaround in mind, just in case.

Thank you both for your input and advice!  If the weather is good, we hope to hike/train to see the 5 villages.  Having a Plan B is a good idea. We'll monitor the Cinque Terre site and weather closer too.

 

One more question... I think we dock at Molo Garibaldi.  Is there a port shuttle bus that takes you to Largo Michele Fiorillo? To save time for an early start, we wanted to catch the bus22? to La Spezia Centrale.  How do you buy a bus ticket? The ATC site says "As of Thursday 27th February 2020 IT WILL NOT BE POSSIBLE TO BUY TICKETS ON BOARD at an extra charge anymore: passengers will need to buy tickets before getting on the bus. We will promptly inform our customers when it will be possible again."

Can you only buy with the ATC app?... can't find the app on the App Store?

TIA

[TeamCan]

10 hours ago, sgmn said:

I think we were unlucky with the weather. In fact some parts of Italy have had very bad flooding this year.  We were also going to buy the one day multi stop ticket but was advised by the staff member at the front of the queue that with the train delays it wasn't worth it and she advised the one stop ticket. 

@cruisemom42 may be able to advise more than I can about the frequency of the railways being affected by weather. 

We didn't see (or notice) the trails from the train window so can't comment if they were affected by the rain.

 

I hope you have a super time, I'm looking forward to going back and visiting some of the villages we missed. 

Thanks for your advice!  Yes, its hard to plan outdoor activities being weather dependent.  Hopefully, we'll have good weather.  Hope you get back to visit some of the villages you missed.

[Softball20]

On 6/8/2023 at 4:25 AM, sgmn said:

Returning to report on our trip to La Spezia last month. 

We were in two minds to see the villages by boat or train, in the end we decided on the train. 

It was a 30 min brisk uphill walk to the train station. We asked a lady in the port the way and she pointed out the best way, but it was pretty simple and with walking Google maps on a smart phone you can't go wrong

 

On the way we passed the boats offering the hop on hop off boat trips to the villages, just a few minutes walk from the port.

 

 

Unfortunately it was raining pretty hard and because of the bad weather the rail timetable was out the window and when we eventually got to the front of the very big queue at the rail station we were told the next train might be an hour, maybe two, maybe not at all. 

We decided to buy a one stop ticket for €5 and go to one of the furthest villages and maybe come back by boat. The one stop tickets can be bought from the tobacconists on the station (no queue).   In fact we only had to wait about fifteen minutes before a train pulled in. The platform was packed but we managed to get a seat. Because of the rain the journey was very slow with lots of stops and starts but we got there eventually. 

 

 

Beautiful village and spent a nice hour or so wandering around.  There was a table with a lady selling tickets for the boat with one leaving fairly soon, so we didn’t stay long. We were a bit concerned with all the weather about getting back to our ship before 'all aboard' 

Loved the boat trip back. We stopped at a few villages to pick up/drop off more people and had to change boats at the last stop (50 min stop). 

Loved our day in La Spezia, even with the bad weather and chaos at the train station. 

 

 

Curious about the boat portion of your trip.  We are thinking of taking the train to Monterosso and then working our way back to La Spezia through the villages.  When taking the boat, can you get off in each village (with the exception of Corniglia)?  Do you recall about how long it took to get between the villages?

[sgmn]

2 hours ago, Softball20 said:

Curious about the boat portion of your trip.  We are thinking of taking the train to Monterosso and then working our way back to La Spezia through the villages.  When taking the boat, can you get off in each village (with the exception of Corniglia)?  Do you recall about how long it took to get between the villages?

Yes, it's like a water bus, stopping and picking up in each village. I guess 20 to 30 min between each village. The last village we had to change boats and had around an hour before the next boat. I'm not sure if this was normal or just for that particular service. 

If you look at this link it has info and a timetable for the boat 

https://www.cinqueterre.eu.com/en/boat-excursions

Edited October 25, 2023 by sgmn

[SharonK]

We will have 2 port days in La Spezia October 2024.  The first day we will go to Cinque Terre using the trains.  We need suggestions for the second port day. Originally we thought about doing Florence but it seems that we’d spend most of the day on the bus. So where else would give us an authentic Italian experience? I’d love to hear from others who have done different things.

Thanks, Sharon

[SharonK]

Following

[edinburgher]

9 hours ago, SharonK said:

So where else would give us an authentic Italian experience?

Can suggest the short train ride to Santa Margherita (Ligure)which is a charming seaside resort.  And from there it is a very short bus or taxi ride to pretty Portofino, although try to take the ferry one or both ways (15/20 minutes) as it is an especially scenic ride.

 

There are many previous threads and posts about both SM and Portofino.  Use the SEARCH tool to find them as you might find them an interesting read.and info and images of both should be easily found online.

Edited November 7, 2023 by edinburgher

[SharonK]

51 minutes ago, edinburgher said:

Can suggest the short train ride to Santa Margherita (Ligure)which is a charming seaside resort.  And from there it is a very short bus or taxi ride to pretty Portofino, although try to take the ferry one or both ways (15/20 minutes) as it is an especially scenic ride.

 

There are many previous threads and posts about both SM and Portofino.  Use the SEARCH tool to find them as you might find them an interesting read.and info and images of both should be easily found online.

Thanks but….I guess I should have said that the ship also stops one day in Santa Margarita so we already have SM and Portofino on our schedule.