Riomaggiore Travel Forum

My wife and I plus 6 and 7 year old sons live in the Caribbean so cannot find anyone here with local knowledge. We fly into Rome in August for four days in Cinque Terre and a week in Tuscany. Are we best to rent a car for the whole time or take a train for to get to Cinque Terra and then just rent the car for the week in Tuscany? If the train, what is the cost for a train to La Spezia from Rome for a family?

Thanx for your help

http://www.europeonrail.com/timetable.asp will get you rail info. track times, costs, etc. If I were doing it (again) I would travel by rail. With the young ones, though, the car might be more convenient for greater flexibility in stoping places. Once in Cinque Terre, you will find the car almost useless (I did) as walking, the local train, and the water ferry (about 18/day might have group/family discounts) is very convenient.

Perhaps the ideal would be to train from Rome to Cinque Terre, spend your four days sans car. Then rent a car in La Spezia for the rest of the trip . . . or train from Cinque Terre to Florence and rent the car there.

We did enjoy our car in Tuscany. You have more freedom to go where you want when you want and the countryside is beautiful. It might be easier on the children too.

Make car rentals before you leave home to save quite a bit of money. Also get the smallest car you can fit into because village streets are narrow, parking spaces tiny and fuel very expensive.

Enjoy your trip.

After flying in from the Carribean, I think you would find it a long drive to the CT, so the train routes would offer a little peace (although change of train will be required at least once). So getting a car is not necessary for your first 4 days as described above. But I do have some question about getting the very smallest car, particularly with two active young sons. The smallest are indeed very small and sadly underpowered even without carrying a full load. In driving thru Tuscany, you may appreciate having a larger more capable vehicle.

"get the smallest car you can fit into"

That is probably not the smallest car available. Glad someone pointed that out. Thanks.

just adding that I agree with the consensus approach here, train to 5 terre, then pick up a car (la spezia as mentioned is a good option) from there for your time in tuscany. I'd consider keeping the car until the flight, drop it off at the airport.

I organized a bunch of retal cars in italy recently and learned that most agencies charge around 40 euro if you drop off at a different location than you picked up, not bad.