Turin to Florence

Beaches, big cities and boat rides

Let’s start in Turin (turismotorino.org), because if you want to travel to Italy from the UK by rail, the route to Piedmont’s fine baroque capital is the obvious one, thanks to direct connections from Paris (6hr; £35). Stay in the historic Grand Hotel Sitea (doubles from £89) – not Turin’s fanciest accommodation but central and excellent value.

This unsung city is definitely worth a day or more – visit its museums, elegant squares, palaces and historic cafés before taking a slow but magnificently scenic train through the Alps to Ventimiglia (4hr; £15) via Cuneo.

This leaves you on the Italian Riviera with fast options south to Genoa and Pisa. Ignore these and take your time. In summer, busy Alassio has the best beach on the first stretch of the Riviera, with Finale Ligure a good overnight bet year-round if big-city Genoa is not for you.

Better still is Camogli (welcomecamogli.it), 45 minutes south of Genoa by train (£3.60) and lovely at any time of year. Stay near the waterfront at the Hotel Cenobio dei Dogi (cenobio.it; from £126).

Ninety minutes south again – with a change of trains at Sestri Levante, another charming little resort – are the Cinque Terre (cinqueterre.it), five impossibly pretty but busy coastal villages, all served by train.

Manarola and Vernazza are the standouts but visit early or, better still, make nearby Levanto your base. Be sure to take a boat ride along the cliff-edged coast (navigazionegolfodeipoeti.it).

Continue south on the main-coast line, but hop off at Vezzano to head inland to Aulla, where a superb little line runs through the mountains to Lucca (2hr; £9), a magnificent town (turismo.lucca.it) and – given its rail links – a good base for visiting nearby Pisa, Pistoia and Prato, and for onward trains to Florence (1hr 20min; £8) or Rome (3hr; £24).

Within Lucca’s old walls – which is where you want to be – the Hotel Ilaria (hotelilaria.com; from £97) is a long-established mid-range choice, with the revamped Grand Universe Lucca (grandeuniverselucca.com; from £190) the best smarter option.