Cinque Terre from Livorno?

[CathyCruises]

Using LeeAnn's suggestions, we too were going to go to CT from Livorno. But imagine my delight when the night before, they came on the loudspeaker and announced that due to high winds we would not be docking in Livorno, but rather tendering from La Spezia!!! I was the only one cheering when they made the announcement. It was raining, however, and the trails were all closed :(. We ended up walking to the train station from the tender area, which took about 15-20 minutes, then caught the train and away we went--took no time.

 

We had one of the best experiences on our whole cruise in Vernazza at The Blue Marlin. We needed to look at the map and ducked in there for a quick coffee out of the rain. Ended up staying for a great lunch--2 specials that day: gnocchi with homemade pesto, and spaghetti with mussels. We ordered one of each--yum! Some shipmates happened in and did the same, then ordered seconds of the spaghetti!! We ended up being great buddies with them. While we were there, we looked at Rick Steve's guide to CT, and he highly recommended Blue Marlin and mentioned the owners name, Massimo, who came over and kissed me when I showed him his name in the book and was singing and joking and keeping us entertained the whole time!

 

Because of the rain, we only made it to 2 villages, Vernazza and Manarola. We wanted to go to Riomaggiore but I guess we were too far back in the train, and when it stopped there the doors wouldn't open! So we ended up taking a taxi back to the tender port because of the rain and got back on board at about 4. Lucky for us--pax returning from Florence were all trying to tender at the same time--the wind came up and whipped up the waves which were going OVER the tender and down the staircase and splashing everyone. They turned the tender back and put everybody back on shore. There is no building, just a dock, and they were standing in the blowing rain getting soaked. I guess about 400 pax were allowed to board a boat nearby just to get inside until the winds died down enough that tendering was safe again! Our departure was delayed about 2 hours and many folks missed dinner. Our tablemates who got caught came to dinner about 9:15! We thanked our lucky stars that we came back when we did!!

 

cp

[bellelinus]

Using LeeAnn's suggestions, we too were going to go to CT from Livorno. But imagine my delight when the night before, they came on the loudspeaker and announced that due to high winds we would not be docking in Livorno, but rather tendering from La Spezia!!! I was the only one cheering when they made the announcement. It was raining, however, and the trails were all closed :(. We ended up walking to the train station from the tender area, which took about 15-20 minutes, then caught the train and away we went--took no time.

 

We had one of the best experiences on our whole cruise in Vernazza at The Blue Marlin. We needed to look at the map and ducked in there for a quick coffee out of the rain. Ended up staying for a great lunch--2 specials that day: gnocchi with homemade pesto, and spaghetti with mussels. We ordered one of each--yum! Some shipmates happened in and did the same, then ordered seconds of the spaghetti!! We ended up being great buddies with them. While we were there, we looked at Rick Steve's guide to CT, and he highly recommended Blue Marlin and mentioned the owners name, Massimo, who came over and kissed me when I showed him his name in the book and was singing and joking and keeping us entertained the whole time!

 

Because of the rain, we only made it to 2 villages, Vernazza and Manarola. We wanted to go to Riomaggiore but I guess we were too far back in the train, and when it stopped there the doors wouldn't open! So we ended up taking a taxi back to the tender port because of the rain and got back on board at about 4. Lucky for us--pax returning from Florence were all trying to tender at the same time--the wind came up and whipped up the waves which were going OVER the tender and down the staircase and splashing everyone. They turned the tender back and put everybody back on shore. There is no building, just a dock, and they were standing in the blowing rain getting soaked. I guess about 400 pax were allowed to board a boat nearby just to get inside until the winds died down enough that tendering was safe again! Our departure was delayed about 2 hours and many folks missed dinner. Our tablemates who got caught came to dinner about 9:15! We thanked our lucky stars that we came back when we did!!

 

cp

 

That's a great story! I have a cruise booked for summer of 2010 (Disney) that will dock at La Spezia and I plan to the the CT for the day. Can you tell me how you walked to the train station? Did you already have a map or was there one available at the TI at the port? 15-20 minutes doesn't sound bad at all, and we will be in no hurry since there is a long day there.

 

The last time we were there we did the private tour to Pisa and Florence, and it was wonderful, but we really want to take advantage of our proximity to the beautiful cinque terre this time.

 

Many thanks in advance for your help.

[CathyCruises]

You will love it! The tender "docks" at a small platform right along a main road, actually--if you cross that street, you will see a TI (tourist information) office where they will give you a map to the station. If I was going to do it again, I would just print one off of Google and brning it with me.

 

We were lucky because we ran into a couple who had just left the TI and had a map and said "follow us", so we did. Now, the station was undergoing some construction, and it was a little difficult to tell where to go to buy the tickets--but there is a little office that says something about Cinque Terre right on the glass door and they were very helpful. It was kind of confusing and so we didn't end up with the CT card, just a ticket--I believe you could use the same ticket for 60 minutes if you kept going in the same direction. Can't remember the price but it was cheap--a few euros. Also, be sure to ask for a schedule because in our case the train was the only way to get between villages--it runs pretty frequently. I for some reason thought once we got to Riomaggiore, there was a specific CT train we then got on, but it's just the regular north-south train that happens to stop in all 5 locations. I was expecting something more touristy but it worked just fine--other than missing the stop.

 

It was one of the highlights of our trip and how I wish I could have brought back some of that pesto! There is a cute little shop right across the street from the Blue Marlin that sells local wines and pesto, but unfortunately it was closed, of course, on Tuesdays. . .:(

 

Have a great trip!!

 

Cathy

[bellelinus]

You will love it! The tender "docks" at a small platform right along a main road, actually--if you cross that street, you will see a TI (tourist information) office where they will give you a map to the station. If I was going to do it again, I would just print one off of Google and brning it with me.

 

We were lucky because we ran into a couple who had just left the TI and had a map and said "follow us", so we did. Now, the station was undergoing some construction, and it was a little difficult to tell where to go to buy the tickets--but there is a little office that says something about Cinque Terre right on the glass door and they were very helpful. It was kind of confusing and so we didn't end up with the CT card, just a ticket--I believe you could use the same ticket for 60 minutes if you kept going in the same direction. Can't remember the price but it was cheap--a few euros. Also, be sure to ask for a schedule because in our case the train was the only way to get between villages--it runs pretty frequently. I for some reason thought once we got to Riomaggiore, there was a specific CT train we then got on, but it's just the regular north-south train that happens to stop in all 5 locations. I was expecting something more touristy but it worked just fine--other than missing the stop.

 

It was one of the highlights of our trip and how I wish I could have brought back some of that pesto! There is a cute little shop right across the street from the Blue Marlin that sells local wines and pesto, but unfortunately it was closed, of course, on Tuesdays. . .:(

 

Have a great trip!!

 

Cathy

 

Sounds wonderful! Thanks for the information . . .:)