Livorno - Cinque Terre

[rubyted]

We are on Epic docking in Livorno from 7am to 7pm on Thursday 10 September. We are a group of four including one young at heart 83 year old. As we have been to Florence previously, I would like to book a driver for a trip to Cinque Terre.

 

Most trips (including the ship trip) suggest visits to 3 of the towns, but I have seen there can be long queues for the ferry and that things can get congested with little time in each place. Given the age of our eldest companion I would like to make things a little more relaxed.

 

I was wondering about travelling out of the port to Monterosso and/or Vernazza returning via Pisa for a quick view of the tower.

 

How does this sound?

 

If we were time limited to one of the villages, which would you recommend

 

Any suggestions for tour companies?

 

Thanks in advance

 

Karen

[Hlitner]

The reason most tours (and we also do this when we simply rent a car and drive ourselves) start at Riomaggiore is because it is the closest village to Livorno and it also has road access (not all the villages are easily accessed). Starting at the other end (Monterosso al Mare is an option, but a longer drive from Livorno. Another option is simply go to Riomaggiore and grab the train to your furthest village (such as Monterosso) and then work back to your starting point. However, keep in mind that you are simply thinking about cruise ship visitors and this is only a small portion of the number of daily visitors to Cinque Terre. In fact, when we are doing long driving trips in Italy we often stop at one or more of the villages. So if you are visiting in the prime season (especially on weekends) and the weather is good, the villages will be pretty crowded (with or without cruise ships).

 

Hank

[rubyted]

Thanks Hank

 

Karen

[phillygirl63]

We too opted to visit CT on our second visit to Livorno because we had already been to Florence. Although I am not overly fond of ship's tours, this was one excursion that I did book through the ship, as it was reasonably priced and provided bus transportation to/from and also included the cost for the ferries. We went in July, which was a very busy time, but found that this excursion was very efficient and provided plenty of time in each of the villages. I do not recall the queues for the ferries being long.

 

One thing that I would suggest is that you bring some "Charmin on the Go" rolls with you. The restroom facilities at one of the villages (I don't recall which one) were a little lacking. We used the restroom on the ferry whenever possible.

[rubyted]

Thanks Phillygirl

 

If you were limited in the villages you could visit, would Vernazza or Monterosso be preferable (toileting facilities notwithstanding)

 

Karen

[aamechs2]

We just did this last month except we used Taxi by Tuscany. Our driver was waiting for us at 7:15 am, he took us to Riomaggiore. We had to wait on the ferry because we just missed it. We then went to Vernazza and Montarola. It was kind of a rushed visit, about 50 minutes in each town. If I had it to do again I might just pick one but both were beautiful and very diffeent from each other. The problem is transportation between towns is only 1 per hour, making it difficult to have much time on a port day. We got back to the ship about 5:00 after stopping for about 30 minutes at Pisa.

[b_cruise]

I just did this tour in July with italytoursharing.com. It was awesome!! You can also book them privately through joe bananas limo tours. I highly recommend them!