Anyone with recent experience hiking in the Cinque Terre region? I see in Rick‘s book that several of the trails were closed (as of publication date). The website http://www.parconazionale5terre.it/ looks to be only in Italian, hard to find any information elsewhere.
Not looking to do any serious hikes, but about 15 years ago we walked from Riomaggiore to Vernazza and rode the train back. Would like to try and do something similar when we’re there next month
The park's website is also in English; there is a small square up next to the magnifiying glass at the top of the main page for changing language.
http://www.parconazionale5terre.it/Eindex.php
Yes, some of the trails have been closed for quite a number of years now, and remain so this year. You can see which of those they are by referencing this page: a line black in means that trail is closed.
http://www.parconazionale5terre.it/Esentieri-outdoor.php
If the trail system you hiked last time was the very popular 4-trail SVA-2 "Blue Path" (Sentiero Azzurro) between Monterosso and Riomaggiore, 2 of those 4 trails are closed: Corniglia to Manarola, and Manarola to Riomaggiore. Monterosso> Vernazza and Vernazza >Corniglia are currently open. You'll also see on the site that there are many other trails, albeit many of those are longer and more strenuous but the site also provides info on each trail for difficulty, length and est. time it takes to hike, plus what can be seen along the way: just click on any segment on the map and the info about it will come up.
Trails which currently show as open an close abruptly at any time to weather or damage from overuse, or rockfalls. If intending on hiking any section of the "Blue", you will need a park pass:
http://www.parconazionale5terre.it/Ecinque-terre-card.php
Editing to add: So you could hike the SVA-2 from Monterosso>Vernazza>Corniglia and take the train back to your base village. You could also do it in reverse. :O)
@Kathy: Thank you kindly for the excellent advice!
We are renting a place in Vernazza, so at least we can take the 2 hikes in either direction from there.
On a related note: any advice on which CT card to purchase? We will be arriving on a Thursday evening and departing Saturday. Seems we may need to purchase the 3 day pass if that's the case? Or do you only need the card when hiking? Also wondering if the card that includes trains is worthwhile (I suspect that we would only use it to enter/leave the region from LaSpezia, perhaps one extra trip.
We will be arriving on a Thursday evening and departing Saturday.
Sounds like you really only have one day - Friday - to hike so if you are doing the "Blue" either direction that day, I'd only purchase a 1-day trekking card. Buy it either on Thursday when you arrive or on Friday morning. Do not validate it until Friday: it'll expire at midnight of that day. Or, buy it in advance for the day you wish to use it: see directions provided in the My Pass link I've provided below. Your individual regional train tickets (travel within the CT) will be €5 a pop, and you wouldn't get the good of either a 2-day or 3-day Treno MS card on your schedule. For instance...
A 3-day Treno MS pass (which includes park trekking) runs €47.90 per adult. A one-day trekking card is € 8.40 per adult (using the advance purchase price on the My Pass app) + 3 individual regional train rides would total € 15 = € 23.40. That's less than 1/2 the price.
https://www.mypass.cc/en/cinque-terre-national-park-tickets/
You only need the Trekking Card to hike from Vernazza>Monterosso or Vernazza>Corniglia on the SVA-2. Use Thursday nite and Sat. morning time to just enjoy some walking about Vernazza. Head to the village's upper reaches to really limber up your legs. :O)
Based on this, I agree that the single day pass makes the most sense for us. Plus it Looks like they also have a family pass for €20… Fantastic advice, Kathy. Grazie Mille!
They do have a family pass! Wasn't aware that you were traveling with young folks but I see now per a past post that you have 2 of those.
I was in Cinque Terre last month and hiked from Vernazza to Monterosso. We heard it could get super busy so we started our hike at around 6:15am which turned out to be perfect. We only saw about 10 other people on the entire hike. There are spots were it is pretty much single file, so if it is busy you might find you are waiting for people going the other direction to pass. We took our time and took pictures of the amazing views along the way and the hike took about 1.5-2 hours. There are lots of stairs and upward hiking, so you definitely get the heart pumping, but other than that, pretty simple. Really enjoyed it. When we were done, we had breakfast in Monterosso and then later hiked up to the Capuchin Friars Chapel which was a whole lot more stairs. That was worth the climb though, so check it out if you can. There is a small beautiful chapel and then you can go higher up to a cemetery that overlooks the Mediterranean. While we were there admiring the view and enjoying the beautiful sunny day, the town bell tower started chiming. Perfection.
I don't have any recent experience, but I last hiked there in 2019. I hiked from Manarola to Corniglia via the town of Volastra, which is a steep hike up, up, up! from Manarola. There are many steps up - yes, it might be hard on some knees, though I had no trouble with it. The big benefit of this hike is the AMAZING views down - wow! I'd say they are the best view of any of the hikes I've done in this region. (Plus...I don't think the hiking pass is required. I didn't need one in 2019.) I seem to recall there's a bus that may take you part of the way up.
Another hike that doesn't require a hiking pass is the one from Levanto (the town just north of Monterosso) back to Monterosso. It's much more conventional hike (without the zillion steps up and down) and maybe not quite as scenic as the hikes between the five villages...until you get to the spot just above Monterosso, where you get a breathtaking view down on all five villages. If you want to see just this view, you can just hike up there from Monterosso and back down. But the whole hike is OK and not nearly as crowded as the other trails. Good train service between Levanto and the five villages.
I'll second the puff up to the Church of San Francesco at the Capuchin Monastery!. We enjoyed both the church, the view, and a visit to the cemetery a bit higher up. Vernazza has lovely little cemetery above the village with a great view as well.
