Florence to La Spezia
The Cinque Terre Train

Santa Maria Novella sits on the edge of Florence's historic centre - ten minutes' walk from the Duomo - which makes the escape to the coast refreshingly undramatic: walk in, check the boards for La Spezia or Pisa, and board. Regional trains have no assigned seats and no gates beyond the standard barcode or validation check, and the Pisa line runs so frequently that precise planning is optional.

One paper-ticket ritual to remember: old-style Regionale tickets must be stamped in the small green validators before boarding, or you risk a fine - e-tickets and app purchases skip this entirely. Trams and the city's buses stop directly outside for connections from elsewhere in Florence.

The line west follows the Arno through the Tuscany the postcards skip: market towns, small industry, vineyards on the hills behind - with Empoli, the route's junction town, at the halfway mark to Pisa. It is unglamorous and quietly pleasant, the connective tissue of the region rolling past at regional-train pace.

Watch the north side of the valley for hill towns stacked above the plain - and remember this stretch when someone tells you Tuscany is only cypress avenues. The river stays with you most of the way, delivering the line, and you, into Pisa.

The Arno built Florence and Pisa both - the railway simply follows the river from one to the other.

Pisa Centrale is where the route turns north - either your train continues up the coast, or you cross a platform onto one that does; connections are frequent enough that the change costs little. But Pisa deserves better than a platform change: the Leaning Tower, cathedral and Baptistery stand together on the Campo dei Miracoli, about 25 minutes' walk or a short bus ride from the station.

The stopover logistics are genuinely easy: luggage storage operates near the station, onward coastal trains run all day, and two to three hours covers the Campo without rushing. If your Cinque Terre base is booked for the evening, the Pisa detour turns a transfer day into a two-destination day at no extra ticket cost worth mentioning.

North of Pisa the line runs the Versilia coast - beach towns like Viareggio to the left, and to the right the startling white gashes of the Carrara marble quarries, so pale they read as snow on the Apuan Alps in high summer. Michelangelo's marble came off those mountains; the blocks still come down to the same coastal line.

La Spezia Centrale, at the end of the run, sits on the slope above Italy's great naval harbour - a working city rather than a resort, and better for it: cheaper beds, honest restaurants and the best-connected base for the villages up the line. The station is compact; Cinque Terre trains leave from the same platforms you arrive at.

From La Spezia the local trains - branded the Cinque Terre Express in the busy season - thread the cliff tunnels to the five villages in order: Riomaggiore, Manarola, Corniglia, Vernazza, Monterosso. Journey times are tiny (the first village in under ten minutes, the last in about half an hour) and frequency is high in season; the trains are the villages' bus service, and everyone uses them.

The park's Cinque Terre Card bundles unlimited village trains with access to the paying coastal trails and is worth the comparison if you plan a full day of hopping and hiking; pass holders already travel the trains free but pay trail fees separately. Two honest tips: Corniglia's station sits far below its village (a stair climb or shuttle), and summer middays are the crush - the villages belong to early mornings and evenings.

The Cinque Terre were built for boats and trains, never for cars - arriving by rail is not a compromise, it is the point.

The workhorses here are Regionale and Regionale Veloce trains: flat fares that cost the same tomorrow as in three months, no reservations, no assigned seats, and validity rules rather than train-specific tickets (validate paper tickets before boarding). They are not luxurious, but they are frequent, cheap and entirely fit for a 2½-hour hop.

Long-distance alternatives exist on parts of the corridor - Intercity trains on the coastal Genoa axis, and occasional through high-speed services - with assigned seats included in the ticket and a small paid reservation for pass holders. They save minutes rather than transform the trip; take one if the timing suits, but never wait for one when a regional is boarding. This is the rare Italian route where the cheap ticket is also the sensible one.

This corridor is the friendliest in Italy for pass holders: Interrail and Eurail cover every regional train - Florence to Pisa, the coast to La Spezia, and the Cinque Terre locals - with no reservations and no supplements of any kind. Point-to-point buyers do nearly as well: regional fares are flat and modest, sold at machines, online and in apps, with no advantage to booking ahead beyond peace of mind.

The practicalities worth planning are physical, not financial: the villages mean stairs, slopes and busy platforms, so a light bag beats a big case; left-luggage at La Spezia (or Pisa for the stopover) handles the rest. In high season, expect the Cinque Terre trains to be standing-room busy in the middle of the day - the corridor rewards early starts, both for space and for the light on the water.