Cinque Terre in the Covid Era

Some of the largest crowds ever in Cinque Terre have occurred on Easter weekend in April. If the weather is decent and there are not significant Covid restrictions, there's no reason to think the number of visitors will not be significant.

Thanks Mike, I appreciate that that has been the case in the past. What I’m really looking for are firsthand experiences from anyone who has been to the Cinque Terre since COVID. The same could’ve been said about Positano in the summer pre-COVID, but when I went it was not crowded. I’m curious as to whether others’ - particularly anyone who went last summer, when tourism had opened to Americans - experiences in the Cinque Terre have been similar, or if even with the additional hurdles presented by travel at the moment, the crowding remains an issue.

It is wishful thinking to expect that Easter weekend 2022 in the Cinque Terre will not be crowded. This article from September 2021 reports that sales of the Cinque Terre card have nearly equaled the 2019 numbers: https://www.cittadellaspezia.com/2021/09/13/vendite-record-per-la-cinque-terre-card-numeri-sempre-piu-vicini-al-2019-407437/

Thanks, that is informative data and exactly the kind of info I was after. To be clear, I didn’t state any particular expectation - I requested information in order to avoid any wishful thinking. It sounds from that article like Easter in CT would not be the type of crowd-free experience I’ve found elsewhere during the pandemic (and maybe those experiences are a thing of the past now anyway). I think CT will remain a pipe dream for me and I’ll look at less aggressively touristed alternatives in Liguria.

One Ligurian place to consider is Lerici. It is a beautiful town on the Gulf of the Poets without gridlock levels of tourism. It's a classic Ligurian port and it has ferry service to Portovenere and Cinque Terre which makes visiting those towns somewhat less vulnerable to the crowds. Near Lerici are Tellaro and Montemarcello - both listed with the Borghi Piu Belli d'Italia. Unfortunately, Lerici has no train - it's reached car or by bus / taxi from La Spezia train station.

Margaret, I can’t comment on CT in COVID era,
but that said, you might consider: https://www.marthasitaly.com/articles/123/levanto-italian-riviera. We visited the lovely, less touristy town of Levanto. We were based in Monterosso x 2N. We were on a culinary tour of the region and ended up enjoying our best meal in the region at Zita’s in Levanto. If we were to return we would base ourselves in Levanto & day trip to CT by train.

Thanks for those suggestions, Mike and Janis. I’ll look into them.

You can't always make plans based on what "you read", of course you will always take that into consideration along with 100 other factors. I have been to Cinque Terre in October (early) and there were no crowds, all of our pictures we sometimes have 1 person in the background or a few people milling about and never had a problem getting a seat on the train between the towns. Amalfi Coast and French Riviera in late May/early June and although there were people there (people do live there) we did not find anyplace with crowding so heavy we could not enjoy ourselves, in fact never once did we even comment or feel like there was a crowd. My Point is make your plans, go see what you want , read multiple reports and look at Videos on YouTube of people that have been to the places you want to go during that time frame to get the big picture, not just the negative. Personally we are not making any Travel plans to Europe till 2023, but that does not mean I stop my research and start filling in my spreadsheets.

I am thinking of going to CT early March 2022 and wondering if anyone knows about that time of year:
Weather?
Hiking?
Safe accommodations for a solo female traveller?