Handpicked experience · Florence
Florence, Italy
A semi-private twelve hours across Tuscany to the Ligurian cliffs and back past the most famous engineering failure in Europe, with an honest account of how much of it is road.
Semi-private travel in a comfortable minivan between Florence and the Ligurian coast
A shared scenic boat linking the villages, with tickets provided
The choice of walking or taking the local train between villages
Time of your own for lunch and a swim, with meals arranged by you
A stop at Pisa on the way back to see the Leaning Tower
This is a semi-private day linking two things that have almost nothing in common: five fishing villages built into a cliff face on the Ligurian coast, and a bell tower near Florence that started falling over during construction and never stopped. The van crosses the Apennines to reach the first and stops at the second on the way home.
The morning is a long drive north-west, out of Tuscany and over into Liguria, arriving at the coast in time to move between the villages by water and rail. The middle of the day is yours on the coast. The return breaks at Pisa before Florence.
Worth being clear about. What comes with this is a driver, the tickets for the local boat and train, and a tablet loaded with marked points and a data connection. There is no accompanying guide at any point, and none is included at the tower either. That suits people who want to be delivered somewhere and left alone, and frustrates those expecting commentary.
The most misunderstood part of the Cinque Terre. The famous low coastal path between the two southern villages was shut for more than a decade after a rockfall and now runs on timed, pre-booked entry over a short stretch; the section beyond it is still closed. What is generally open is the northern path between Monterosso and Vernazza, and that is a hard two hours of stone steps climbing several hundred metres, not a seaside stroll. Access to those paths is also ticketed by the park authority, sold at the trailhead booths and the stations, and settling that is on you.
Useful to know before you look for the boat. Corniglia sits on a headland about a hundred metres above the sea and is the only one of the five without a landing stage. Reaching it means a brick stairway of three hundred and eighty-two steps up from the station, or the shuttle bus that meets the trains. Plan the day so you arrive there by rail rather than expecting to be dropped at its feet.
Look up from any of them. The hillsides are stacked with dry-stone terraces built by hand over roughly a thousand years, and the total length of that walling has been measured in thousands of kilometres — the comparison usually made is with the Great Wall of China. They are what stops the slope moving. Where they have been abandoned the ground has come down, and that is exactly what happened in the flood that wrecked two of these villages in 2011.
The part of Pisa nobody explains properly. It began tilting in 1178, when only three storeys were up, because the ground beneath one side is soft alluvial clay. Work then stopped for almost a century while the city fought its wars — which is the only reason the thing still stands, since the soil consolidated in the interval. When building resumed, the upper floors were angled to correct the lean, so the tower is not straight and tilted but subtly banana-shaped. A ten-year engineering programme ending in 2001 pulled soil from the high side and took roughly a degree and a half back off.
Said plainly: the coast is around two and a half hours from Florence, so five hours of the twelve are spent in the van, plus the Pisa stop. What remains on the coast is a good half day, not a leisurely one. Pick two villages rather than five.
Open it to pick a date and work out the price.
What the fare covers, and what to budget for separately.
The practical detail, and the answers people actually ask for.
No. You get a driver, the local boat and train tickets and a tablet with marked points and data. There is no accompanying guide on the coast or at the tower.
Partly. The southern coastal path runs only on timed pre-booked entry over a short stretch and the section beyond is closed. The open northern path is a hard two hours of steps, and a national park trekking card is required and bought locally.
No. Corniglia sits about a hundred metres above the sea on a headland and has no landing stage. It is reached by 382 steps from the station or by the shuttle bus.
About five hours of the twelve, since the coast is roughly two and a half hours from Florence each way, plus the stop at Pisa.
Because construction halted for almost a century after the third storey while the city was at war, letting the soft ground consolidate. The upper floors were then angled to compensate, which is why the tower is subtly curved rather than simply tilted.
Not as part of this. The stop is to see it from outside; climbing requires a separate timed ticket bought in advance.
Two, or at most three. The time left after the driving does not stretch to five without the day becoming a series of platforms.