Path of Love: the most romantic hiking of Cinque Terre finally reopens

The Via dellʼAmore is part of the more complex Blue path. Indeed, it is only the first stretch of the fabulous and much longer Sentiero Azzurro, which extends for around 12 kilometers to Portovenere and can be covered in just over 5 hours, offering the visitor a wonderful walk among breathtaking views, cliffs overlooking the sea, beautiful villages and terraces for agricultural use.

You should never forget the Cinque Terre are a difficult and fragile territory, which the Ligurian people, however, never stopped using at their service, well before they were discovered by mass tourism. The Via dellʼAmore is an easy route, suitable for everyone, flat, but in the Cinque Terre National Park there are many paths and 120 kilometers to cover by trekking.

From 9 August 2024 the Via dellʼAmore is open to everyone, but booking is mandatory. Access is limited to a maximum of 400 people per hour, divided into groups of 100 people every 15 minutes. Entrance for tourists is one-way from Riomaggiore and ends after 900 meters in Manarola. From April 1st to October 31st visits are possible from 8am to 7pm, from November to March from 9.30am to 5pm. All information on the website.

Riomaggiore, Manarola, the isolated Corniglia up on the hill, Vernazza, Monterosso. These are the 5 villages that give their name to the Cinque Terre area, proceeding from east to west. In Riomaggiore, where access to the sea is somewhat difficult, tourists can visit the Castle and the fourteenth-century churches of San Giovanni Battista and San Lorenzo.

Manarola is a real balcony overlooking the sea. The final stretch of via Belvedere is evocative, ending in a small panoramic and romantic square no less than the Via dellʼAmore. In this village on August 10th the patron saint San Lorenzo is celebrated, it is beautiful to observe the shooting stars on the newly reopened path. For those who love off-season tourism, it is important to know that from 8 December Manarola is transformed into a beautiful luminous nativity scene.

In Vernazza, the Doria castle is unmissable, a symbol of the economic importance that the village had in past eras. From the Doria Tower, one of the symbols of the town, you can admire a wonderful 360 degree panorama over the entire town.

The only one far from the sea, but overlooking and easy to reach for the more daring, is Corniglia. You can get there via the long Lardarina staircase, made up of 33 ramps and 377 steps, but like all five villages, here too there is a convenient train station that crosses the entire Ligurian Riviera. Corniglia is the hilltop town and the middle one of the five, with fantastic views and the wonderful terrace of Santa Maria.

Monterosso is the largest town in the Cinque Terre (some trains from Milan also stop there) and for swimmers it is the only one that can boast a wide, sandy beach. The long seaside walk is as beautiful as the Via dell'Amore path and among the things to visit there are the church of San Giovanni Battista, which dates back to 1282, and the 16th century Torre Aurora.

The Cinque Terre have been part of the World Heritage Site recognized by UNESCO since 1997. Today they are reunited in a protected national park, however crowded with 4 million visitors a year (compared to 4,000 residents). The use of the Via dell'Amore must therefore be protected, respectful of the territory and sustainable. It will no longer be the stone path overlooking the rocks, but a comfortable walk that lends itself to events.

To book a visit to the Via dellʼAmore ‒ even on site, not just online ‒ it is however necessary to have one of the various Cinque Terre Cards, to which add the additional fee of 10 euros. However, with the Cinque Terre Card it is possible to access all the paths of the Cinque Terre and use the trains and shuttle buses unlimitedly. For trekking lovers there is not only the Path of Love, but a series of breathtaking routes. All the info here.