Can you DIY both Pisa and Cinque Terre from La Spezia?

[kj_connections]

My cruise will be in La Spezia from 7am to 6pm in May 2025.  Has anyone done their own DIY excursions to both Pisa and Cinque Terre in the same day from La Spezia? If so, do you mind sharing your itinerary and any suggestions you have?  

[Hlitner]

22 minutes ago, kj_connections said:

My cruise will be in La Spezia from 7am to 6pm in May 2025.  Has anyone done their own DIY excursions to both Pisa and Cinque Terre in the same day from La Spezia? If so, do you mind sharing your itinerary and any suggestions you have?  

It is not really a practical day trip as they are in opposite directions.  Cinque Terre will easily take the entire day (you are not likely to see all 5 villages even in a full day).   It is about an hour drive, south, from La Spezia to Pisa, which does not even consider the time to park and walk to the Field of Miracles.  La Spezia to Riomaggiore (and the other 4 villages) are to the north.  

 

Hank

[kj_connections]

2 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

It is not really a practical day trip as they are in opposite directions.  Cinque Terre will easily take the entire day (you are not likely to see all 5 villages even in a full day).   It is about an hour drive, south, from La Spezia to Pisa, which does not even consider the time to park and walk to the Field of Miracles.  La Spezia to Riomaggiore (and the other 4 villages) are to the north.  

 

Hank

 

Thanks Hank.  Sounds like I'd have to pick one.  Which do you recommend?  I feel like there is much more beautiful scenery in Cinque Terre...but I also wanted to take a picture of the iconic tower...I guess I can just photoshop myself into a photo with the leaning tower if I never go back there again. 

[Hlitner]

8 minutes ago, kj_connections said:

 

Thanks Hank.  Sounds like I'd have to pick one.  Which do you recommend?  I feel like there is much more beautiful scenery in Cinque Terre...but I also wanted to take a picture of the iconic tower...I guess I can just photoshop myself into a photo with the leaning tower if I never go back there again. 

For me it is a no-brainer, although others may disagree.  But Cinque Terre (even with the overcrowding) would be our suggestion.  If you ever take a cruise that gives you a port day in Livorno, you can easily combine Pisa with a visit to Lucca or even a short visit to Florence.

 

If Pisa is really the place you must go, then you can combine it with a visit to Lucca.  But you would need a rental car, or private tour to pull it off.  

 

Hank

[DLWood]

On 7/4/2024 at 3:57 AM, kj_connections said:

My cruise will be in La Spezia from 7am to 6pm in May 2025.  Has anyone done their own DIY excursions to both Pisa and Cinque Terre in the same day from La Spezia? If so, do you mind sharing your itinerary and any suggestions you have?  

No, I don’t think so. We left our room this morning at 8:30, took the shuttle from the ship to the terminal, a taxi to the train station then the 1 hour train to Pisa (it was late). Walked to the tower, spent about an hour there, walked back to the train, waited 40 mins for a late train, one hour train ride back, waited for a taxi to the port, then shuttle to the ship and got back at 2:30. 

[Hlitner]

On 8/10/2024 at 12:02 PM, DLWood said:

No, I don’t think so. We left our room this morning at 8:30, took the shuttle from the ship to the terminal, a taxi to the train station then the 1 hour train to Pisa (it was late). Walked to the tower, spent about an hour there, walked back to the train, waited 40 mins for a late train, one hour train ride back, waited for a taxi to the port, then shuttle to the ship and got back at 2:30. 

i love your post because it highlights an issue with trains, not always mentioned here on CC.  Assuming they are running (i.e. there is no strike) it is not unusual for them to run late.  For cruisers planning on using trains in Italy, it is wise to build-in a substantial time margin to allow for such issues.

 

Hank

[CCJack]

On 7/3/2024 at 10:35 PM, Hlitner said:

For me it is a no-brainer, although others may disagree.  But Cinque Terre (even with the overcrowding) would be our suggestion

Not necessarily a no brainer for me, but I would have to agree that CT gets the nod. 

 

Coincidentally, we were booked on a ship's CT excursion and we arrived at the meeting place 1 minute late (I swear!) - they left without us, so we had to rebook on whatever was left which was Pisa.   I was pleasantly surprised with Pisa - Field of Miracles - I thought it was beautiful.   On a later trip we went to CT and it is just more of an experience and more of an adventure than Pisa so I would agree that would be my first choice. 

[ClemMovieRunner]

On 8/10/2024 at 5:02 PM, DLWood said:

No, I don’t think so. We left our room this morning at 8:30, took the shuttle from the ship to the terminal, a taxi to the train station then the 1 hour train to Pisa (it was late). Walked to the tower, spent about an hour there, walked back to the train, waited 40 mins for a late train, one hour train ride back, waited for a taxi to the port, then shuttle to the ship and got back at 2:30. 

 

Wow, thanks for this post. I've just been weighing up a trip to Pisa from La Spezia and that sounds like not much fun. 

 

Is the train ride a pleasant one?

[DLWood]

1 hour ago, ClemMovieRunner said:

 

Wow, thanks for this post. I've just been weighing up a trip to Pisa from La Spezia and that sounds like not much fun. 

 

Is the train ride a pleasant one?

Train ride was very nice. Modern train cars with upper and lower and washrooms. Although as per much of Italy no toilet seats lol. 
as long as you plan for the logistics I still recommend you go. my response was to show you can’t do Pisa and Cinque Terre in the same day
 

 

It’s a beautiful location and a quaint little town. We did not have tickets to go inside so just stayed outside. We also walked down the street with the restaurants and had gilatto. I found the August crowds and heat were excessive so it would be much more pleasant with lower temperatures. 

[ClemMovieRunner]

9 minutes ago, DLWood said:

as long as you plan for the logistics I still recommend you go

Thanks for the vote of confidence, tbh, there are a number of days on our upcoming cruise where there's not a central "thing" to go do, and La Spezia doesn't seem to have anything that grabs us, so we might brave the train after all! If we make it a flying visit to Pisa that'll give us time to not worry about timings and give us opportunity to take a look at La Spezia too. Perhaps we'll find we love it.

Edited September 2 by ClemMovieRunner