Monterosso al Mare is the traditional starting point for the Cinque Terre hike. The path connects five villages (📍Monterosso, 📍Vernazza, 📍Corniglia, 📍Manarola, and 📍Riomaggiore) along the coast. It’s gorgeous, the trail is well cared for and offers the opportunity to walk through the terraced vineyards built along the cliffs overseeing the Mediterranean. It has been and remains our top hike in Italy to this day.
Being our fifth time doing the trail, we were not expecting any surprises. While there was nothing big we did end up with higher traffic than we usually get and a fair amount of mud on the trail due to all the rain they’ve been having. There were times were we had to wait in line! The thing with popular hikes is that they are… well… popular. People with limited hiking experience, a backpack full of useless stuff, wearing tennis shoes, surprised that there are hills and stairs to climb, take to the trail in droves. These people even managed to comment that we were wearing sandals and that’s not trail approved multiple times. To be honest they are right that the park discourages sandals because they don’t want to deal with people hiking in beach flip-flops. Hiking sandals, meaning sandals specifically made for hiking, are fine and actually much better than the white tennis shoes with flat soles they are wearing. Lucky for them, my desire to not interact with other humans won out over my desire to smack some knowledge into these people.
As hoped, the crowed thinned out as we went past Vernazza and onto Corniglia. Karine had bet as much and won fair and square. I don’t know what was involved in the bet so I hope I haven’t lost too much. The weather also transitioned from cloudy and humid to sunny and warm. Most of the trail is along the cliff side, so we got the sea breeze keeping us comfortable. With the sun out and the trail now at a reasonable amount of people, we managed to keep a good pace and work out a good sweat when not stopping for pictures every couple of hundred meters. We probably have the same photos of the trail from all of our other four visits, but it is just so gorgeous!
📍Via dell’amore is a small sidewalk between the las two villages that had been closed since 2012 due to landslides. We’ve done it once and were unimpressed by it. On all our other treks we ended our trip in Manarola. There is a 1.2km alternative path but it has a steep incline and takes around one hour. After doing 13.5km and 950m of total elevation gain in a little over four hours, we still had some energy to do the extension. The late hour and the call of the excellent Lemon Spritz at our favourite Enoteca, however, won out and we followed our tradition and ended one village early with the satisfaction of having done it 18 minutes faster than last time and feeling less tired showing that our physical condition is only improving with age. Another great accomplishment for us.
Places
Blue Trail: Monterosso al Mare - Riomaggiore, Liguria, Italy - 191 Reviews, Map | AllTrails
• Access alert: To walk the Sentiero Azzurro from April to October you need the Cinque Terre map. The map can be purchased online here: https://www.parconazionale5terre.it/cinque-terre-card.php • Access alert: On the busiest days, one-way traffic will be reintroduced on the stretch of the Sentiero Azzurro between Monterosso al Mare and Vernazza, from 9 am to 2 pm: one-way traffic from Monterosso to Vernazza is mandatory. It is advisable to check the status of the trails and the rules to follow before completing any stage of the Sentiero Azzurro. For more information: https://www.parconazionale5terre.it/dettaglio.php?id=82406 A very beautiful but challenging hike along the coast in the Cinque Terre National Park. Starting from the town of Monterosso al Mare, the path passes through Manarola to Vernazza, Corniglia, Porciana, Volastra and finally Riomaggiore. All along the way there are several lookout points where you can take in the lovely views.
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