Hiking the Cinque Terre

 

Before arriving in Cinque Terre, we knew from blog posts we had read that we should expect some of the hiking trails on the Blue Path - the route that makes up Cinque Terre’s best-known hikes - would be closed. We learned these hikes, which are near sea level, are prone to landslides and are frequently shut down for maintenance and repair.

But we didn't expect that, due to an exceptionally wet spring, only one of the Blue Path trails (Vernazza to Monterosso) would be open during our stay.

But no biggie! We were more excited about the high-elevation Red Path trails anyway. On the Red Path we were able to take in pretty much the entire length of the Cinque Terre, with the exception of the distance from Riomaggiore to Manarola (which we passed on in favour of adding the hikes at the far ends, Riomaggiore to Porto Venere and Monterosso to Levanto).

The routes we took are outlined in the following blog posts. If you read the posts in the order they were published, you’ll notice we didn’t hike the trail in a linear order. This was because we chose the routes we would take each day based on the weather - longer, more strenuous hikes on nice days, and easier, more popular hikes on rainy days. I’ve rearranged the posts in the list below from north to south so that it makes more sense linearly.

Lavanto to Monterosso, Day 5
Trail: SVA
Time: 2.5 hours
Distance: 7km
Maximum elevation: 360m at College di Bagari

Vernazza to Monterosso, Day 4
Trail: SVA
Time: 2 hours
Distance: 3km

Corniglia to Vernazza via Cigolette, Day 1
Trail: 587 > AV5T > 507
Time: 3 hours
Distance:  ~6km
Maximum elevation: 607m at Cigolette

Corniglia to Manarola via Volastra, Day 2
Trail: 587 > 586 > 506
Time: 3 hours
Maximum elevation: 453m

Riomaggiore to Porto Venere via Telegrafo, Day 3
Trail: 593 > AV5T
Time: 4.5 hours
Maximum elevation: 570m