Cinque Terre Hiking

This local blogger tells how to keep current. http://www.littleparadiso.com/2013/05/the-cinque-terre-national-park.html

Paul, Just to clarify, the flooding of October 2011 wasn't the cause of the trail closures on the Sentiero Azzurro (No. 2) trails. Those floods primarily affected only two of the five towns (Monterosso & Vernazza), and the others weren't affected to any great degree. The status of the No. 2 trails changes periodically every year due to "routine events" that take place in the hills such as small slides, erosion, etc. The Via dell'Amore is currently closed following a rock slide last September, which seriously injured four Australian tourists. The segment from Manarola to Corniglia has been closed for quite awhile due to damage unrelated to the floods of 2011. You can check the current status of the trails at this website: www.parconazionale5terre.it/sentieri_parco.asp?id_lingue=1 AFAIK, the website is revised on a regular basis, so should be reasonably current. You'll note that the segments from Manarola to Corniglia and Riomaggiore to Manarola are still closed. Manarola to Corniglia was supposed to open in June, but that didn't happen. The Via dell'Amore (Riomaggiore to Manarola) will likely be closed for the remainder of this year. To answer your question, you won't be able to walk from Riomaggiore to Monterosso, unless you take some of the other trails that run higher in the hills. The easiest solution is to walk the segments that are open, and use either the local trains (tickets are cheap) or the boats for the other segments. Happy travels!

Thank you Mike and Ken. Your info was extremely helpful and really helped clarify the situation. I'm sure we'll still enjoy the heck out of 5T.