Updated pricing and details!
You may or may not know that arrival by car to the Cinque Terre can be a bit hairy and anything but convenient. The roads are very narrow and winding, parking is extremely limited (due to the unique geography) and also quite expensive, and the historic centers of the villages are pedestrian-only.
My advice? Ditch the car before hitting the Cinque Terre. If that’s not feasible, you can do the next best thing and park it at the brand spanking new underground parking garage at the La Spezia Centrale train station for €18 per day (or €8 for a half-day). Keep in mind that rates might be higher during peak months like July and August. You’ll definitely want to reserve your parking space online in advance (as when it’s busy the garage fills up). Keep in mind that you’ll have to “check-out” of the parking garage by noon on your day of departure…
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Hi Amy, your website is so helpful! I have learned so much. I have a question and I hope you can help. We’re heading to Italy in 4 weeks (2 adults, 2 boys 5 and 3yrs old) for a wedding in Oriveto. We’re renting a car because we’re driving from Milan to Parma, then wedding weekend in Oriveto. On Sunday, we’re thinking of driving to Pisa from Oriveto, stopping by the leaning tower in Pisa (only because our son really wants to see it), then going from Pisa to Cinque Terre. We want to leave our car before we head to CT, we haven’t decided where to stay yet but Monterosso seems to be the most family friendly. So would you suggest leaving the car at La Spezia Centrale and train it to Monterosso. Or could we drive to Monterosso and leave it there. We’re not interested in driving thru winding roads or trying to figure out things. Since we only have 2 days at CT and have kids with us, we want it to be as easy and relaxing as possible. After CT, we will be heading to Milan for a day and fly back to NY. Or would you even recommend staying at Portovenere and just take a ferry to visit CT. Thank you so much for your advice. First time to all these places.
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Ciao Dina!
Since you’re traveling with two little ones I’d definitely recommend Monterosso over Portovenere (Portovenere has the teeniest little stretch of sandy beach whereas Monterosso has lots of sandy beach to offer). You can actually drive directly to Monterosso (your best bet will be to book a place that offers parking). The important thing if you want to drive to Monterosso is do NOT exit the autostrada in La Spezia (that’s the exit if you want to go to the other four villages). You’ll actually stay on the autostrada a bit longer and take the Carrodano/Levanto exit.
Enjoy your time spent here!
Amy
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Amy…I’m wondering if you can help me. I will be heading to Monterosso on June 21 and planned on parking in the La Spezia Centrale garage like you suggested. (THANK you so much for all your amazing tips!) Unfortunately I cannot log in and have tried everything…I made the account following the directions online but for some reason I cannot log in. I called customer service but there is no English option:( Really want to reserve a space for June 21 and 22 and not sure where to go from here. Any ideas for me?
PS…I am currently reading Beautiful Ruins and am in love. ❤
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Ciao Melissa!
At what point are you unable to proceed? Have you tried to create a new (& different) login to see if that does the trick?
xo
Amy
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Yes I did and they said an account already exists. When I try to log in nothing happens and I’m not sure who I can contact to help. Thanks for responding Amy!
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Ciao Melissa!
Please pardon the delayed reply… we had a long holiday weekend and I was only able to speak with someone at the office that runs the parking garage today. I was told you’ll need to contact them directly at infomobpark@mobpark.it and they will fix the bug for you. More than likely there was either a probem with your “codice fiscale” or with your password (which has to be at least 8 characters including at least one special character and one number). Anyway, no harm done… contact them and they should be able to straighten it out for you! 🙂
Hope that helps,
Amy
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Amy you are so so kind to help me. She was a doll and activated my account but there are no spaces left to reserve. Since I’m arriving on a Wednesday she said more than likely there will be spaces but I need a back up plan if the lot is full. Can you suggest anything? And how can I thank you for your help? Can I bring you anything from Raleigh North Carolina?
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Ciao Melissa!
You are so sweet! I’m happy to be of help.
How early are you planning to arrive that day? I’d say the earlier you are the better your chances of getting a spot! Don’t forget that without a reservation there are actually two garages to check there at the station (the -1 level and the -2 level) as they have separate entrances (-1 is on via Paleocapa and -2 is on via Fiume).
If both levels are full, you can queue and wait a bit to see if a car exits.
If you want to have a Plan B, there’s another payment garage located on via 24 maggio at Piazzale Kennedy (it’s run by ATC like the other garage). The parking there is cheaper (50 cents an hour) but you’ll need to take a taxi to and from the parking garage to the station. There’s a cab lineup in front of the hospital which is a block away.
I hope this helps!
Take care,
Amy
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Hi Amy,
Love your website and all your valuable tips that will make our trip way better. I just want to say like Melissa stated above, I created an account with http://www.mobpark.it. Then tried to login and nothing happened. I did everything even got my husband to try. I did send an email to the company explaining the situation. I was happy that Melissa asked the question and you provided an answer. I am still waiting to hear back from Mobpark regarding he La Spezia garage. I think the company needs to improve their site for tourists. Thank you for all your input.
Jacquie
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Ciao Jacquie!
I wholeheartedly agree with you… there’s plenty of room for improvement! The problem is that the parking garage is run by ATC which is a public entity that also runs the public buses in La Spezia. Being public (and not private) the possibility that they will make improvements is minimal. Welcome to Italy! *sigh* 😬
Take care,
Amy
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Thank you so very much for this! Cannot wait to get to beautiful Cinque Terre!!
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My pleasure, Melissa! Enjoy your holiday. 🙂
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Hi Amy! We are off to CT in few days and wondering where to park the car for 3 days outside the city. Do you know if it’s possible to leave the car to the payment garage located on via 24 maggio at Piazzale Kennedy for 3 days or do they have limitation with days/hours? Any other ideas? Thank you so much for your help xx
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Ciao Anna!
You can leave the car for as long as you’d like beneath Piazzale Kennedy (the rate is €14 per day) but you’ll want a taxi from there to get to La Spezia Centrale (there’s a taxi lineup a block away in front of the hospital). 🙂
Amy
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Ciao! Thank you so much Amy, your a true star and made our trip much less stressful regarding this CT parking 🙂 Just wondering if you know the postcode/adress to this Piazzale Kennedy parking garage? I can’t seem to find it from internet or not sure if it’s the right place.
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Ciao Anna!
Please pardon the delayed reply. You *should* be able to simply enter Piazzale (or Piazza) Kennedy on your GPS but if that’s not enough you can enter this address (which is for a shop in Piazzale Kennedy): 26 Piazza Kennedy John Fitzgerald, La Spezia, SP 19124
Hope that helps!
Amy 🙂
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Hi Amy! We parked to Park Kennedy for 3 days and everything worked out perfectly! Car was safe and sound when we returned after CT tour. We visited Riomaggiore, Corniglia and Vernazza and loved all of them! Now driving to Lake Maggiore 🙂
Parking for 72 hours was 36e (0.50e per hour) and Taxi was 8e to La Spezia central station. Parking machine only accepted cash money. Such a easy and smooth parking & journey all in all. La spezia park was all full so good we parked to Kennedy! Million thanks again, I would not have known to park whitout your help Amy 🙂 Anna xxx
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I’m so happy to hear you had a lovely time, Anna! And it’s great to hear your feedback about parking beneath Piazzale Kennedy. I’m thinking that will be one of my next blog posts! 🙂
Take care and hope to see you back in the CInque Terre someday!
Amy
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Hi, just to continue to the previous comment… Is it true that we can only leave the car to la spezia parking for a one day/24h? That was our nro 1 choise to park but Im worried that it’s not possible to leave the car there for 3 days. Our plan is to hike from riomaggiore to monterosso so we don’t really want to come and move the car in between. Thanks again for this awesome page xx
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Ciao Anna!
Absolutely not! You can leave your car for as long as you’d like at the parking beneath La Spezia Centrale. If you are reserving and they only have one day available you can overstay and just pay the difference at the automated machine before exiting (shhhhhhhh! I didn’t tell you that 😉 ).
Hope this helps!
Amy
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Oooh this is amazing, thank you millions for that tip and yes I’ll keep very very shhhh 😉 xxx
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My attempt to register for an online account was stopped by the need for a codice fiscale. Did I take a wrong option on the website?
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Ciao Rick!
Try inserting random numbers in that field. The platform will accept a specific series of numbers only once so try to make them random numbers (and not something predictable that someone has probably already used, like 123456789 etc.).
If after a few attempts at a random number you aren’t having success, try contacting their customer service directly via email (English is fine) and they’ll iron out the problems for you. Email: infomobpark@mobpark.it
Hope that helps!
Amy
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Hi Amy,
This post is extremely helpful. Thank you!
One question,
At the end of the booking process, there is a mandatory field asking for the license plate number.
We are renting a car and dont know the license plate number yet.
Would that be a problem to put a random number?
We are arriving very late at 2 am and I am concerned that we will be in trouble.
Thanks,
Itamar
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Ciao Itamar!
Go ahead and enter all zeroes… they know it’s impossible for those renting cars to know the license plate number in advance. 🙂
Take care!
Amy
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