How to Visit Cinque Terre from Florence on a Day Trip
With its candy-colored houses stacked precariously on the hillsides of the Italian Riviera, the Cinque Terre is a can’t-miss sight on any trip to Italy. These stunning towns are one of Italy’s major draws and visiting them is definitely a bucket list item come true.
While I suggest that two days in Cinque Terre is better if you can dedicate the time to it on your Italy itinerary, the reality is that sometimes a day trip makes more sense. Either you don’t want to re-pack everything and would prefer to visit destinations from one base, or you simply don’t have enough time to fit more than a day into your itinerary.
Luckily, Cinque Terre is easily doable as a day trip from Florence, with easy access by train and motorway, making it quite simple to visit these beautiful villages even if all you have is one day.
While you can DIY a Cinque Terre day trip (and I’ll show you how!) you can opt for a partially-guided tour as well, which will organize all the transit for you, but you have independent time to enjoy each Cinque Terre town the way you want to.
This is what I did on my recent Cinque Terre day trip from Florence through City Wonders, which you can book via Get Your Guide.
For me as an independent traveler, this is my personal favorite way to do a day trip — organizing all the logistics can stress me out, but I want the independence of seeing a destination on my own time and terms, and not blindly following some guide for the entirety of a day.
I still want to feel like I’m discovering things on my own and feeling the magic of wandering through the narrow, colorful alleyways of these towns… even if someone is helping me time it out all out and get from Point A to B (and to C, D, E, and so on!).
This tour let me do both and made some points of friction easier (i.e., getting me to Cinque Terre earlier than the train from Florence would have allowed) so it was perfect for me, but you can also DIY it and do it independently easily as well.
This post will walk you through some possible Cinque Terre day trip itineraries as well as explain how to get there from Florence, and help you decide if a guided day trip or an independent one is right for you.
How to Plan a Cinque Terre Day Trip from Florence
With a Guide
The easiest way is to book a tour like this one, which handles all your transfers and ensures you’ll see all the highlights without stressing over the logistics. You just meet at the meeting place in Florence, close to the central train station, and they handle the rest.
The tour I took offers two slightly different itineraries depending on the season: the tour I did, with three villages of the Cinque Terre (Manarola, Vernazza, and Monterosso al Mare) and one with two villages and Pisa (which replaces Vernazza).
They run the three-village tour during the low season, and since I visited in mid-March, I got to do the tour of the three Cinque Terre villages, which for me was ideal.
I’m guessing they probably change from three villages to just two during the high season because once peak season kicks in, Cinque Terre gets quite congested. That makes it a little more difficult for sightseeing, and so swapping out one of the villages for Pisa makes sense.
I visited Pisa (and climbed the tower!) on another day trip I did with Get Your Guide, but on a tour that included Pisa with Tuscany, and I definitely think that either way, you’ll love the itinerary.
Independently
That said, there’s nothing too difficult about planning a Cinque Terre day trip from Florence on your own if that’s how you prefer to do it, or if you want to try to see three or possibly more villages.
Simply arrive at the Florence train station, the Santa Maria Novella railway station, and board the first train to La Spezia.
As of summer 2024, there’s a morning train at 8:28 AM with one transfer (arriving to La Spezia by 10:43 AM) and another one that is direct at 9:53 AM (arriving in La Spezia at 12:20 PM, which is a bit of a late start).
A train ticket from Florence to La Spezia should cost around 15-25 Euros. Despite the transfer, the earlier ticket is actually faster than the direct, and is more expensive.
Once at La Spezia, you’ll want to get the ticket for Cinque Terre, which costs 42.50 Euros for a one-day all-access train pass, which allows unlimited rides anywhere between La Spezia and Levanto, including all five villages of the Cinque Terre.
Yes, it’s quite pricy, but that’s simply the cost of traveling the Cinque Terre and there’s not really any way around it.
Which Way Is Better?
To me, the overall high cost of transport in the Cinque Terre makes the relative value of a guided day trip even better. You’re already paying a baseline transport cost of around minimum 60 Euro, and closer to 70 Euro if you’re taking the earlier, faster train that I suggest.
The other benefit of a tour here is that since you take a coach transfer to La Spezia, you’re able to get an earlier start — we left Florence at around 7:30 AM and was in Cinque Terre before 10 AM, so we got to see it early before it started to get more crowded with day trippers.
Personally, I loved having the guide and going to three Cinque Terre villages. I actually prefer that itinerary to the one with Pisa, but I understand why they run the tour differently in the high season.
I think it’s a great choice if you won’t otherwise be in Pisa; however, if your trip already includes Pisa, it may not make sense to do this tour. Check tour specifics to see if it’s the right itinerary for you!
Can You Drive?
What about driving — is that an option for visiting the Cinque Terre from Florence?
Technically, you can drive to the Cinque Terre, but it’s not ideal. If you do, I would suggest only driving so far as La Spezia, and then buying an all-day train pass (yes, despite the cost!).
The towns of the Cinque Terre are completely car-free once you enter the village. The towns do have limited parking on the exterior of the town; however, there’s usually a lot more walking involved from these parking lots, plus getting between the towns of the Cinque Terre is way more efficient by train than by car due to the winding roads.
I would not rent a car specifically to visit the Cinque Terre from Florence. However, if you already have a car rented (like if you plan to road trip Tuscany) and happen to be starting out from Florence, it’s not a terrible idea to drive to La Spezia first and then take the train from there, and it gives you more flexibility about when you start and end vs. taking the train from Florence.
My Cinque Terre One Day Itinerary
A few logistical notes: I did this as a guided tour (this one here) but their itinerary in winter differs from the itinerary in summer.
Note that if you visit in the high season, which I imagine most people reading this will, the same tour I took will instead visit Monterosso and Manarola in the Cinque Terre, and then Pisa on the way back to Florence.
If you’re visiting in summer, you can book your train tickets independently and follow the itinerary below if you prefer to visit Vernazza over Pisa.
Vernazza
This harborside fishing village has a lot of great things to see in a compact area, making it a great place to visit on a day trip. It was included on my day trip, which I was super happy about!
Note that in the summer, on the guided tour itinerary, Vernazza gets swapped out for Pisa (likely as a result of crowds in Cinque Terre).
If you do include Vernazza on your day trip to Cinque Terre, here’s what I suggest you do there — you can see the basics of the town in about an hour or two, so you don’t need so much itme here.
Walk down to the harbor area and look out onto the sea, grabbing a gelato at Gelateria Il Porticciolo if you are craving something sweet — the pistachio gelato here is especially lovely.
The harbor area is really beautiful and has tons of colorful umbrellas in the piazza, which is surrounded by colorful red, yellow, and pink buildings: those signature Cinque Terre hues!
Make sure you don’t miss a hike up to Castle Doria, where you can get some incredible views over the village and the Cinque Terre coastline. Tickets are 2 Euro and cash only.
You should take a peek around the Church of St. Margaret of Antioch, located right in the harbor area. It’s nothing spectacular, but it’s easy to visit and free, and since you’re right in the area it’s an easy addition.
As you walk back to the train station, there are some really cute souvenir shops and the like where you can pause for a bit of shopping. I also suggest stopping at one of the bakeries where you can grab some focaccia with pesto for about 4 Euro.
Rule of thumb of a day trip to Cinque Terre? Eat all the pesto possible.
Thank me later.
Monterosso al Mare
The largest of the Cinque Terre towns, Monterosso al Mare is broken into two districts: Fegina and Borgo Antico (Old Town). The train stops in Fegina, but most of the main sights you’ll want to see are in the Borgo Antico, so you’ll likely visit both areas.
The Fegina area is home to a really beautiful stretch of beach — if you have time, I suggest walking towards the left side of the beach, where you can admire the interesting and imposing Il Gigante Statue that towers over the seaside, carved into the cliff so that it almost looks like an otherwordly extension of the natural landscape.
On the way towards the Borgo Antico from the train station, you really ought to stop for a gelato at La Scogliera, which is of course best eaten with a view over Fegina Beach.
Their lemon with cream flavor is extremely delicious and definitely worth trying, as Cinque Terre is famous for its lemon liqueurs!
On your way over to Borgo Antico, you can also opt to climb the pathway above the town which leads to the Convent of the Capuchin Friars, which is a small and featureless church with an incredible view. The cemetery up here is also quite beautiful and a really peaceful place to take a pause on an otherwise fast-paced Cinque Terre day trip.
Once in the Borgo Antico, don’t miss the Church of San Giovanni Battista, which is definitely the most grand and interesting in the Cinque Terre. It has the signature striped marble styling you’ll find in many of the cathedrals in Italy, and it’s really beautiful on the inside as well.
We had extra time built into this part of the itinerary so we could enjoy lunch at our own leisure. I didn’t want to waste time so I grabbed a quick bite of pesto al trofie, a regional classic, at the takeaway spot Pastarita.
Honestly, it was extremely delicious and I was glad it was so fast, which saved me time for sightseeing in Monterosso, which is the largest of the Cinque Terre towns and thus has a lot to see.
Manarola
For this part of the tour, we had two options — we could go on a brief guided hike with our guide, to see views of Manarola and its surrounding vineyards from above, ending at the postcard-perfect waypoint, or we could explore Manarola independently.
I opted to go on the hike and I have to say it’s a must-do in Manarola — the town is simply spectacular from this vantage point!
Seeing the classic “Cinque Terre” view that you’ve seen everywhere from postcards to screensavers may seem a bit cliché, but it’s absolutely a must. I didn’t regret a moment of the walk.
Besides seeing the iconic view of Manarola, you can stop for gelato at Gelateria Manarola (yes, I ate three gelatos, one in each town, all in one afternoon — I’m nothing if not thorough!).
Then walk up to the top part of town where you can see the town’s church, Chiesa di San Lorenzo. You can admire the views from up here too from a different angle, which are also spectacular!
You can also opt to walk down to the harbor area if you want to see the sea up close, or you may even want to don your bathing suit and hop into the water if you’re visiting in the hotter summer months and you want to take a quick swim!
Just be sure to bring a change of clothes and a quick-dry towel should you plan to take a dip, so you don’t have to deal with wet clothes later for the rest of the day.
Ready to go? You can book your tour of Cinque Terre here!
Note: I was hosted on this particular day trip experience from Get Your Guide. However, I would have taken this tour regardless as I regularly pay out of pocket for their tours. I recommend them heartily as both a paying customer and a partner!
Allison Green is a former teacher who has been travel blogging since 2016, visiting 75+ countries in total. She has a Masters in Teaching and a B.A. in English and Creative Writing. As a former educator, she merges her writing and educational experience to encourage ethical, sustainable travel. She has been a speaker at the World Travel Writers Conference and TBEX. Her writing, photography, and podcasting work has appeared in National Geographic, CNN Arabic, CBC Canada, and Forbes, amongst others. When she’s not on the road, she lives in Bangkok, Thailand.
