Seeking input on quick trip to Cinque Terre from Rome

[cbowler]

Hi everyone - I have gotten caught up in the Princess fiasco regarding Portofino. For those unfamiliar with the situation, Princess has suddenly cancelled all stops at Portofino and replaced it with a stop in Tunis.

 

We had planned to visit Cinque Terre on our own during our long port day in Portofino. We chose our cruise/itinerary primarily because it DID go to Portofino and we DID want to visit Cinque Terre. So, now that everything has gotten messed up, I'm trying to sort out my options and am considering making a quick side trip up to Cinque Terre from Rome during our 3 days pre-cruise.

 

I'm seeking any and all opinions about the following plan. If I'm crazy, please tell me. If it sounds like a reasonable solution to a bad situation, please tell me. If you just don't care...well, don't tell me. ;)

 

Here goes:

 

Sunday: Arrive in Rome around 10am. Take the 12 noon train to Riomaggiore via La Spezia. Arrive in Riomaggiore about 4pm. Spend the remaining portion of the afternoon and evening visiting 1 or 2 of the towns. Spend the night in one of the Cinque Terre towns.

 

Monday: Visit the remaining towns until around 3pm and catch the 3:50 train back to Rome via La Spezia and arrive in Rome about 8pm. Have a late dinner and stroll a little to see some sights like the Trevi Founatin and Spanish Steps.

 

Tuesday: We have a full day tour with a guide booked in which we'll see some of the major sights. Plan to see Colosseum, Forum, Vatican, St. Peters, and Castle San't Angelo. Spend the evening having a good dinner and another evening stroll.

 

Wednesday: Cruise departure day. We have a 12 noon transfer pickup at our hotel. I figured we could get up at a decent time and have about 3 hours to take in some more sights that we didn't get to on Tuesday, which could be Pantheon, Capitol Hill area, Borghese Gardens, etc or just spend the morning walking around.

 

Now... you are probably wondering what I would be giving up in order to spend essentially 2 days of our pre-cruise up in Cinque Terre. The things we have on our current plan that will get missed (or may get missed): Borghesse Gallery and Gardens, Capitol Hill area, Victor Emmanuel Monument, Piazza Venezia, Rome from the Sky, and 2 half days of just wandering around seeing what's what.

 

So, that's that. Am I nuts? Too rushed? A good use of time? What do you think? I haven't cancelled any hotels nights, booked any train tickets, or anything like that yet. I'm still just trying to sort this out in my head and now on here. Thanks for listening and for providing feedback.

 

Carrie

[euro cruiser]

Am I nuts? Too rushed? A good use of time? What do you think? I haven't cancelled any hotels nights, booked any train tickets, or anything like that yet.

Only you can say if this is important enough to you to go through all this. It certainly sounds like it is, given that you picked your cruise precisely because of this location.

 

One suggestion - don't purchase your train tickets in advance. For one thing, you probably can't buy them from the Trenitalia site, it's infamous for rejecting non-Italian credit cards. While you can buy the tickets from a consolidator, you pay a significant premium and you're out of luck if your flight is late and you miss the train. Don't worry about being shut out - you'll be able to get tickets that morning at the airport train station.

 

Have you looked into adding an additional leg onto your flight, and simply continuing on to Pisa, then taking the train from there?

[cruisemom42]

I say this with a little trepidation, as I haven't been to the Cinque Terre yet, but if -- as it appears -- you haven't been to Rome before, I would not give up the 3 days you have there (which really are necessary to do that great city justice) in order to visit the Cinque Terre which, while they may be beautifully scenic, do not have the art, history, or sheer volume of sights to see that Rome can boast.

 

However, if you have your heart set on CT, it seems you have a reasonable schedule in place.

[JLC@SD]

.....my suggestion with your proposed plan......travel with as little luggage as possible......trains and Cinque Terre are not luggage friendly.

[caripoo]

My answer is you are giving up one great area for another. They are both worth 3 days. You NEED that time to really see both areas. I would be bummed that Portofino was left out as we also book our trips based on what we want to see. If your air and time allows, I would fly into Florence or somewher closer to Cinque Terra and do that area then take the train to Rome and give that quality time. Or if you think you will get back MANY more ships either come and go from Rome or go there for the day. We have been to Rome 4 times and still NEVER are bored!!! Good luck, this will be a hard choice.:cool::cool:

[iancal]

We did something similar, only we spent three nights in Cinque Terre. We landed in Rome and went directly by train. First problem was our luggage. It did not make it from Frankfurt so we had to wait 2 hours for Lufthansa to get it to Rome. We did not book the train ahead of time. Unless you are going on a Friday, Sunday, or vacation there is no need to. We bought our tickets at the airport. We did not go to Termini, we changed trains at Trastevere-much easier than going into Termini (there are 2 trains in Rome airport -the Leonardo a non stopping that goes to Termini and the other regular stopping one that stops at Trastevere (sp)).

If you have never been to Rome before then your decision is much more difficult. If this is the case, I would be inclined to skip Cinque Terre and spend all of your time in Rome, or extend your precruise time. I really think that you need two days or more in order to really enjoy the area. We spent 4 days and would like to go back. Same for Rome. After lots of European travel, our preference now is to reduce the number of places that we visit on a trip in favor of increasing time at those locales that we do visit.

[euro cruiser]

Routing through Rome Trastevere is an interesting alternative, but it means that you must make two changes, in Pisa and La Spezia, and it means traveling the entire distance on regional trains, with no guaranteed seat. It only adds an hour to the trip, but that wouldn't be for me.

 

One benefit of going through Rome Termini is that you can check most of your bags at the left luggage office, and only take what you need for a couple of days up to Cinque Terre with you.

[cbowler]

One benefit of going through Rome Termini is that you can check most of your bags at the left luggage office, and only take what you need for a couple of days up to Cinque Terre with you.

 

That's what I envision we would do. I'm not planning on schlepping 10 days of luggage with us up to Cinque Terre for just one night. :)

 

Thanks for the input everyone. It really is such a tough decision. We indeed have NOT been to Rome before. I will have to think about this some more.

[grandbanksguy]

So, that's that. Am I nuts? Too rushed? A good use of time? What do you think? I haven't cancelled any hotels nights, booked any train tickets, or anything like that yet. I'm still just trying to sort this out in my head and now on here. Thanks for listening and for providing feedback.

 

Carrie

 

Have you looked into flying into Milan or Genoa. It's much easier and quicker to get to C-T from these airports. We did 3 nights in C-T first then took the train to Rome via La Spezia.

[notentirelynormal]

Have you looked into flying into Milan or Genoa. It's much easier and quicker to get to C-T from these airports. We did 3 nights in C-T first then took the train to Rome via La Spezia.

 

 

She bought her air into Rome already.

[cbowler]

Yes indeed, I already have my air booked into Rome. Thanks for the suggestions though.

[grandbanksguy]

She bought her air into Rome already.

 

I guess it's back to plan A.

[iancal]

eurocruiser...you comment about routing made me think. I believe that we were routed through Trastevere in order to make the last local train to Riomaggiore. We were late. We rented a one bedroom apt. in Riomaggiore and the manager was kind enough to meet us at the station when our train pulled in at 11:45ish. Had we gone to Termini, we would have missed a connection. It had been a long day. We had flown from Western Canada to Frankfurt to Rome and than had to wait a few hours for our bags. We have been so very fortunate on our travels to meet some great hosts and some very helpful people such as the good lady at the Trenitalia booth at the airport. To add insult to injury, all local trains to Rome were delayed because of track work and this caused us even more grief. We are fairly independent travellers and have learned to just roll with the punches...not that one can doing anything else.

[euro cruiser]

eurocruiser...you comment about routing made me think. I believe that we were routed through Trastevere in order to make the last local train to Riomaggiore. We were late. We rented a one bedroom apt. in Riomaggiore and the manager was kind enough to meet us at the station when our train pulled in at 11:45ish. Had we gone to Termini, we would have missed a connection. It had been a long day. We had flown from Western Canada to Frankfurt to Rome and than had to wait a few hours for our bags. We have been so very fortunate on our travels to meet some great hosts and some very helpful people such as the good lady at the Trenitalia booth at the airport. To add insult to injury, all local trains to Rome were delayed because of track work and this caused us even more grief. We are fairly independent travellers and have learned to just roll with the punches...not that one can doing anything else.

Wow, keeping your cool through all that is pretty impressive.