Vernazza Travel Forum

I will be travelling to Italy in March and wanted to take a few days and visit Cinque Terre. We will have a rented car, so was planning to leave the rental car in Spezia and travel by train to the different towns in Cinque Terre, does
anyone know where I can leave the rented car in Spezia? I was also thinking of staying a couple of nights in Vernazza, is this a good choice or should we stay in Spezia and only do a day visit to Cinque Terre towns. Thanks for your help.

All the towns along the CQ are beautiful and worth staying in. My favourite is Manarola although others will have other opinions. Vernazza is also a great town (bigger than Manarola). Can't help on where to park car, but each of the towns in CQ do have car parks, but they are a long way from accomodation places.

I too staying in and loved Manarola - there is a car park above the town and I think a samll local bus will take you back and forth to the town. It is less touristy than some of the others.

I'd definitely stay at least one night in the CT to soak up the atmosphere of the charming towns. I've stayed in Vernazza and loved it, but of the others Manarola is the most appealing. Hope you get some fine weather to truly enjoy the spectacular scenery.

On our last trip to Italy I had planned for a couple of days in the Cinque Terre however we never made it - oh well. Hey, you're supposed to go back, right? Anyway, Rick Steves writes:

"You can park your car near the train station in La Spezia ... cheap parking is a few blocks west of the station at the end of Via XV Giugno in Piazza d'Armi and along Viale Amendola." He goes on to mention, "... leave nothing inside to steal."

I love that guy! He has some of the best tips.

Have a great trip.

Pete

My suggestion is to stay in La Spezia. It would cost half the price and you can go to Cinque Terre in 10 min.( e.g.:on a sunny day )Parking "near" the station is 3/4 of a mile away and ,if you have luggage, is not a pleasant walk.
Cinque Terre are beautifull but are now very tourist oriented and everything is overpriced. You could spend the whole day/s exploring the villages and go back in La Spezia in the evenings. There you have much more and cheaper choises for shoping, good restaurants, pizzas, ice creams, and, yes, museums..