cinque terra for limited mobility travelers

I love Cinque Terre . We stay in Monterosso. You can walk all over. The hiking might be a little challenging but if you take your time and go slow, I do believe you can do it. We just did the one, from Monterosso to Vernazza. Check out Hotel Villa Steno.

Tina

IMHO, Monterosso would absolutely be the best choice as it's mostly flat so easy walking between the two parts of town. There are stairs to negotiate in the station but once after that you shouldn't have any problems. There's an access road at the side of the platforms that leads down to street level and I've used that a couple of times when the normal access is crowded.

I'm not sure if the Ferries will be operating in the second week of October especially as they're weather dependent. If you stay in Monterosso the Ferry is easily accessed, although you'll have to board using a narrow gangway (there are handrails). It's also easy to get between the five towns using the frequent local trains, but again you'll need to negotiate stairs.

I'm not sure whether you'll be able to do much hiking on the two Sentiero Azzurro trails that are open due to your medical issues. You might find that just walking around Monterosso exploring all the small shops and restaurants will be adequate. You might just leave that part flexible, and decide how much walking to do according to how you feel each day.

Excellent advice from Ken. I will add that it is fairly easy to walk around each little town. Rick Steves’ guidebook has self-guided walks in each town, and as far as I remember few stairs, except to go to the point where you can look back on Manarola. Otherwise the towns have paths that are sometimes steep. In Corniglia you can take a shuttle bus up from the train station to the town and back down. There is also a bus that goes up from Vernazza to a sanctuary and I believe you can ride it round trip for a bit of a tour. There’s also a little bus into the hills from either Manarola or Riomaggiore. (Can’t remember which one.) we have had good luck with the ferry in October, so hopefully that will work for you. The trip to Porto Venere is very nice by boat as well.

I did a hiking tour of many of the trails with my mother two years ago (she was 76 at the time), and I assure you that the trails are really not going to be nice to your knees or hips if you don’t build up your endurance first! I have never used walking poles before, but for these hikes you definitely need them since there are many uneven “steps” as you go up and down different switchbacks. There are plenty of flat parts, but the trails do get crowded with people passing, and other large tour groups like ours. We had 30 in our group, but the largest tour we passed had 100. We were also there in early April BEFORE it got even busier.

I will say that I have never seen better scenery while hiking (including hiking the Alps in Switzerland), and not all the trails are the same, so do your research and pick the easier routes. Just be prepared with hiking poles, good hiking shoes that protect your ankles, and enjoy your trip! The towns themselves were ok, but with all the tour buses full of people (cruise ships also bring a lot daily) it felt overrun with people. The trails is where I felt I enjoyed the best part of Cinque Terra.

Our tour used Portovenere as the base, and it has a ferry that runs to the Cinque Terra towns. If the sea is too choppy though, it won’t run, but I felt there was more to do there at night. Plus the Fortress is fun to visit and there is a small island across the small bay that has a nice easier loop. Good Luck!

I would consider Camogli or Santa Margarita Ligure instead. The hiking in Portofino park was much less vertical than CT. At CT, I remember it being up-up-up, and I was under 40 when I visited. Also, the coastal trails at CT are often closed and you have to do the upper trails. Read full descriptions of all trails on both park websites.

http://www.parconazionale5terre.it/Erete-sentieristica.php
http://www.parks.it/parco.portofino/Eiti.php

Linda, are you flying R/T Rome? If so, I might suggest this itinerary.

Arrive Rome then when ready to exit airport, train to Orvieto. Tickets may be purchased at airport train station.

Orvieto>Assisi. Train.

Assisi>Florence. Train.

Florence>Cinque Terre.

Cinque Terra>Rome.

The only town that has a Lot of stairs is Vernazza, but there are ways to avoid the long walks up them.

Sounds like a great trip.

This is my first time using this site and truly appreciated all the comments. Thank you for taking the time to share your tips. I am incorporating them into my trip. Linda

We stayed high atop the hill at the Hotel Porta Roca in Monterosso al Mare. (We walked but they had taxi service if needed.) That town is highly walkable and flat. As noted, you can take the trains from town to town. You will want to skip Corniglia due to the hundreds of steps required to get to it from the train stop. The rest are all doable and I urge you to go and enjoy it.