Verona Travel Forum

Can someone suggest a route going from Verona to Riomaggiore in Cinque Terre on a weekday, probably Friday? We'll be leaving Verona around noon and have to be at Riomaggiore by 5pm. Any interesting towns to stop by along the way?

Thanks,
Raymond

I like the town of Mantua. The trip is all major autostrada and will be easily done - we did have a GPS and it is helpful. I would also go to Lucca which is on the path to Cinque Terra - you can park at say Manaronola or Riomaggiore and the view above the water is great - you can also go to LaSpezia and take the train but i would drive it - go thru LaSpezia and head for higher ground.

it does take a bit of time to get there from verona however.

www.viamichelin.com is excellent for providing European driving routes and estimated timings.

La Spezia is an interesting place for a wander, with a couple of good museums.

Verona to La Spezia is about 230 Miles along the "sightseeing route"- 4 and half hours driving at the very least.

Have a look at www.viamichelin.com
Select driving instructions from Verona to Riomaggiore, choose sightseeing route and Show Tourist Sites . The Search will produce a detailed break down of the itinerary showing tourist attractions by a solid green circle.

You can play around with the options - particularly if you need to cut driving time down by using the Motorway.
Friday afternoon could be busy driving time.

Mantova is OK, but the best route won't pass along Lucca. Sorry.

Parma could be another very nice option (but you won't have a lot of spare time in your 5 hours....

Ciao
Francesco

Yes, the most direct path will take you three hours - and that's if you hit NO traffic problems.

As you can see from viamichelin.com, the recommended route is Verona to Modena on the A-22, Modena to Parma on the A1, and Parma to La Spezia on the A15, so it's autostrade almost the entire way.

I agree with Francesco that Parma would be a nice place to see, but you really don't have any time to do anything other than get off the highway and drive around in town, because that 2 hours is going to go quickly.

I have made the drive from Parma to La Spezia on the A15; it's a very pleasant drive through the mountains which begin west of Parma and descend down to the coast. Not a lot of towns along here, though, mostly hills and trees.

You are driving on a Friday in the afternoon; sounds like a great time for traffic congestion. If you really need to be in Riomaggiore by 5 p.m., I wouldn't think of stopping until I got to La Spezia, where I would at least be close enough that the drive to Riomaggiore is not far away and I could do a time check. If you get to La Spezia with lots of free time, you can either see the stuff that J (leics) pointed out, or drive through town out to Portovenere, which is like one of the Cinque Terre, except that you can drive to it (not around in town, but you can at least drive the the city center on the one road that is open and park and walk around a bit). Note that it will take you 20-30 minutes to drive from La Spezia out to Portovenere, so, again, you don't have a lot of time.

Bill

I'm back from the trip and ended up using the autostrada as we rather spend time in Cinque Terre.

The traffic was very smooth except near the turn from A22 to A1. There were a lot of trucks until we turned into A15 which is quite scenic.

When near Riomaggiore, we parked by the road and hiked up a the hill to a church. There, we had a great view of the Cinque Terre towns.

I had a great trip and thanks for all the replies in the thread.

Raymond

So glad you enjoyed you trip and many thanks for reporting back.
I hope you will write this up as a Tip on your Travel Page - so other VT members will have the chance to see it when the Forum Post has disappeared fromeasy view.

Yep, the A15 is rather scenic. The day we drove it, it was raining in Milan, Parma, Cremona, etc. - everyplace east of the mountains. This meant that there were a lots of clouds in and among the mountains on either side of the A15. But when we started to descend to La Spezia, the sun came out, and we had a lovely time and weather in Portovenere.

Of course, your weather was surely different (we did the drive in November), but I am glad to hear that it was nice even in the summer...and thanks for coming back to us with this info!

Bill

Glad you had a good trip and all went well. Thanks for the feedback.