HIKING
Hiking the Cinque Terre Trails
The Cinque Terre trails are more than the coastal path: booked cliff walks, steep village-to-village climbs, and quiet high routes to the sanctuaries above.
Check dates and availability ↗The Sentiero Azzurro, and its missing links
The walk most people mean by "hiking the Cinque Terre" is the Sentiero Azzurro, the low coastal Blue Trail that in theory links all five villages just above the sea. In practice it is currently incomplete, because landslides keep closing sections and some stay shut for years. At the time of writing the famous Riomaggiore–Manarola stretch is open on a booked system, the two eastern legs are open, and the Manarola–Corniglia section remains closed. This matters for planning: you cannot assume you will walk the whole coast in a day. Treat the Blue Trail as a set of separate walks rather than one continuous path, and check the national park's own status page a few days before you go — it changes.
The Via dell'Amore: the easy, booked one
The Via dell'Amore, between Riomaggiore and Manarola, is the gentle, near-level exception — a short paved cliff path that reopened after more than a decade lost to landslides. It is also the most tightly managed. Access is one-way from Riomaggiore to Manarola, on a reserved half-hour time slot, with a cap of 200 people per slot along its roughly 900 metres, and you carry valid ID with your card. From 2026 that access sits inside the standard Cinque Terre Card rather than a separate ticket. Because it is easy and famous, slots go; if walking it matters to you, book online when you buy your card rather than hoping to sort it out at an info point on the day.
The steep bits people underestimate
The two eastern legs of the Blue Trail — Corniglia to Vernazza and Vernazza to Monterosso — are open and are where the word "coastal path" quietly misleads people. These are proper hikes: long flights of stone steps, real climbs and descents, exposed and hot in summer, each taking well over an hour at an unhurried pace and longer with photo stops. They reward you with the classic high-angle views back onto the villages, but they are not strolls, and doing both in an afternoon on a warm day is a genuine effort. Go early, carry more water than you think you need, and be honest about your knees on the descents, which are where most people struggle.
The high trails almost nobody walks
Above the coastal path runs a whole quieter network that most day-trippers never touch. The high ridge route along the top of the park — often numbered as the main high trail — links the villages at altitude with far fewer people and long views over both the sea and the inland valleys. Branching off it are the sanctuary trails, the old devotional paths that climb from each village to the shrine above it, such as Soviore over Monterosso or Montenero over Riomaggiore. These upper routes are generally outside the paid Blue Trail sections, so they typically do not need the trail card, though rules can change — worth confirming. They are longer and steeper, but on a busy day they are where the Cinque Terre feels like itself again.
The rules: card and shoes
Two rules are worth taking seriously on the marked coastal trails. First, the Cinque Terre Card is required on the park's paths, even for a single section; it is a day card, sold by the park, and inspectors do check. Second, footwear is enforced — flip-flops, sandals and smooth-soled shoes are banned on the trails, and the park is willing to fine people for wearing them. This is not officious box-ticking. The paths are stone, often polished, frequently steep and sometimes wet, and the fine exists because unsuitable shoes cause real accidents here. Trainers with grip are the minimum; proper walking shoes are better. Neither rule applies to simply visiting the villages, which cost nothing to enter and need no special footwear.
Planning a walking day
Build the day around heat and status rather than ambition. The trails face the sun, shade is scarce on the terraces, and midsummer middays are punishing, so start early and let the train — which links every village in minutes — carry you over the legs you are not walking or that are closed. A realistic plan is one or two open sections plus a couple of villages seen properly, not a five-village trail marathon. Carry water, sun cover and something to eat, since trailside options are limited once you leave a village. Above all, check the park's official trail status close to your date: after autumn rain in particular, what is walkable can look very different from any page written months ahead, including this one.