Hey all,
So it looks like the trails between Riomaggiore to Manarola and Manarola to Corniglia are closed.
My wife and I will be travelling to Cinque Terre (staying in Riomaggiore) mid-May and would love to do the hike connecting the 5 villages. With these two closures is this still possible? If so what paths would we do instead?
Thanks everyone!
We were there this past year. The lower trails are closed but you can hike across the high traverse. We hiked from Manarola to Vernazza with lunch in Corniglia. The trails are in good shape, but STEEP. The sign out of Manarola said 1200 steps up. So lots of steps up and then a nice traverse, and then LOTS of steps back down to the next town. Then up again and down again. Fabulous views.
We did 9 miles and were very tired. The train worked great to bring us back again. We are in our early 60's and in fairly good condition. I would recommend at least light weight hiking boots. We saw people in all kinds of footwear, but we were really glad we had boots as its a pretty rugged trail.
You'll love it!
As you've noted, two segments of the popular Sentiero Azzurro trails are closed, and there's no definite word yet on when those will reopen. If nothing changes between now and mid-May, you can still hike the Monterosso - Vernazza and Vernazza - Corniglia segments and then use the local trains to get to the other towns. However as the previous reply indicated, there's an extensive network of trails in that area and if you're avid hikers you can use those to get around the closed sections. You can check this website for information.....
http://www.parconazionale5terre.it/Esentieri-outdoor.php
I haven't seen any definite information on when the two closed segments of the Sentiero Azzurro will be reopening. It's possible that the Via dell' Amore (Riomaggiore - Manarola) won't be open again until April 2017. I expect the trail from Manarola to Corniglia will be closed for some time, as there's a substantial slide across that. Construction never seems to move as quickly in Italy as it does in this part of the world.
There are many other paths. Check out other walks here.
We hiked the high trails last September including one from Levanto (where we stayed) into Monterossa. The trails were beautiful but tough. I wished for my heavier, more stable boots back home in Phoenix as the Nikes didn't cut it for me. I also have great trekking poles but on advice of Forum posters, I saved space by leaving my expensive pair at home and buying a cheap pair there. They are available all over the place for no more than 20 Euros and I passed them on to another hiker. I have a pre-existing knee injury so I also wore a light brace. This trip and the hike was on my bucket list for 10 years. It was truly unforgettable and I'm so glad I did it
the hikes higher up in the hills, through volastra, are actually better too because you can always walk down and back up, etc...i was there before the flood in 2011 in the summer and i hiked up in the hills from manarola, above cornigilia and it was breathatkingly gorgeous and amazing - not a soul in sight, around at 8am...stopped for a picnic breakfast, absolutely one of my favorite travel memories of all time. the view was completely unbelievable....up in the vineyards and stone walls, high above everything,
just go, figure out the trails as you go, get a map and your set! no worries! enjoy it, i'll be there in may to hike it all over again!
We did the upper trail hike from Corniglia to Manarola this past September and loved it. It was a bit steep but the views were amazing. We did the lower trail from Corniglia to Vernazza and Monterosso. The upper trail we had a map online and it was easy to follow the numbers and the turns going between Cornigilia and Manarola.
