Last verified: September 20, 2026. That morning I priced every Cinque Terre Card on the park’s own shop and on the Comune di Riomaggiore’s. I read all four official trail cards for the coast path, and counted every closure and weather notice the park has posted this season. I re-check the prices and the trail status monthly, because both move.
On September 20 I tried to answer the question all Cinque Terre hiking turns on: what can you actually walk right now? The park’s own website gave me three different answers before lunch.
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Its news bulletin said the stretch from Corniglia through Vernazza to Monterosso was closed. Its own trail card for Corniglia to Vernazza said open, no alerts. Its card for Vernazza to Monterosso said partly open, in from Via Corone, with the Servano section shut. Same park, same morning, three answers.
That’s the real subject here. Not a scenic walk between five villages, which is what every guide describes. It’s a four-section trail network in four different states, priced by a card that changed this spring. Weather alerts can shut all 130 km of it overnight. This is one of the experiences worth planning an Italy trip around, and the one most likely to be closed on the day you booked it.
Key Takeaways
- The coast path is four numbered sections, not one walk. Two were shut on September 20, including Manarola to Corniglia, closed by landslide and still only at the design stage.
- A one-day adult Trekking Card cost €10 or €15 on the park’s own shop, not the €7.50 that half the internet still quotes. The park withdrew that price when it restructured the card in March 2026.
- The Via dell’Amore is included in both cards now, but you still book a 15-minute slot, and it runs one way from Riomaggiore.
- An orange weather alert closes the whole network and suspends card sales.
Table of Contents
Can You Still Hike Between All Five Villages?
No, and you haven’t been able to for years. The coast path is officially the Sentiero Verde Azzurro, trail 592, in four numbered sections, and on September 20, 2026 not one of them was simply open. The park publishes a separate card for each one, with its own length, time, grade and status.
Here’s what those cards said. Riomaggiore to Manarola, the Via dell’Amore, section 592-1: open, 1.112 km, 25 minutes, grade T for tourist, reservation required (Parco Nazionale delle Cinque Terre, trail 592-1, September 2026). Manarola to Corniglia, 592-2: closed, 2.184 km, 1 hour 15, grade E, shut by landslide (trail 592-2, September 2026). Corniglia to Vernazza, 592-3: 4.137 km, 1 hour 30 out and 1 hour 45 back, 269 m of climb, grade EE. Vernazza to Monterosso, 592-4: 3.668 km, 2 hours out and 2 hours 15 back, 217 m of climb, grade EE, partly closed.
Two things in that list deserve more attention than they usually get. The first is the grading. EE is the Italian Alpine Club’s grade for experienced hikers, one step below needing equipment. Both northern sections carry it. Almost every English-language guide calls this walk a stroll between villages, and it isn’t.
The second is that closures here are not rare events. On September 10 the park closed Corniglia to Vernazza to Monterosso pending geological checks (park notice, September 10, 2026). That came 19 days after it reopened Corniglia to Vernazza, and 16 days after it shut the Servano stretch above Monterosso.
| Section | Route | Status on Sep 20 | Length | Time | Grade | Card needed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 592-1 | Riomaggiore to Manarola (Via dell’Amore) | Open, booked slot, one way | 1.112 km | 25 min | T | Yes |
| 592-2 | Manarola to Corniglia | Closed, landslide, design stage | 2.184 km | 1 h 15 | E | n/a |
| 592-3 | Corniglia to Vernazza | Trail card says open, bulletin says closed | 4.137 km | 1 h 30 | EE | Yes |
| 592-4 | Vernazza to Monterosso | Partly closed, in from Via Corone | 3.668 km | 2 h | EE | Yes |
Manarola to Corniglia is the one that isn’t coming back soon. In November 2025 the park awarded the final design stage for sea defences and slope reinforcement to a Flow-Ing Srl consortium for €137,966.40 including VAT, after earlier studies costing over €300,000. The job covers about 500 m of stone breakwaters, more than 1,500 m² of dry-stone wall and roughly 13,000 m² of habitat. The site runs to 50 hectares, five times the size of the Via dell’Amore works (park notice, November 7, 2025). No reopening date has been announced, and design is not construction.
What Does the Cinque Terre Card Actually Cost?
A one-day adult Trekking Card cost €10 or €15 on the park’s own shop on September 20, 2026, depending on the date’s demand band. The €7.50 card that half the search results still quote is gone. The park withdrew it when it restructured the whole thing in March 2026.
Here’s what changed. The park scrapped the old “Plus” tier, folded Via dell’Amore access into both remaining cards, and repriced. Its own announcement put the saving at €7.50 against the old Plus card, with the new prices landing in March to give Trenitalia time to update its systems (park announcement, January 20, 2026). So the Train card went up in absolute terms and down against the product you’d actually have needed for the Via dell’Amore. Both of those things are true, which is why the coverage is such a mess.
The Trekking Card, which covers the paid trails and the village buses, showed two adult prices per duration: €10 or €15 for one day, €17 or €26.70 for two, €23.50 or €37.50 for three. Children aged 4 to 11 pay €7 or €10 for a day, over-70s €8.50 or €12.50, and a family of two adults plus a child €27.10 or €40.20 (Cinque Terre Card shop, September 20, 2026).
The Treno MS Card adds unlimited regional trains between Levanto and La Spezia, and it showed four adult prices for one day: €17.30, €22, €29.50 and €35. Two days run €29 to €61.50, three days €34 to €81. My reading is that the €17.30 is the winter tariff rather than a summer band, since the Comune di Riomaggiore’s shop lists the Train card bundle as starting at €22 for the season (viadellamore.info, September 2026). Check the calendar for your own date rather than trusting the lowest number in any table, mine included.
| Card | 1 day | 2 days | 3 days | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trekking, adult | €10 or €15 | €17 or €26.70 | €23.50 or €37.50 | Paid trails, Via dell’Amore, village buses |
| Trekking, child 4 to 11 | €7 or €10 | €9.70 or €14.50 | €12 or €18.30 | As above |
| Trekking, over 70 | €8.50 or €12.50 | €12.50 or €19.20 | €16 or €25 | As above |
| Trekking, family 2+1 | €27.10 or €40.20 | €39 or €60 | €49.50 or €77.50 | As above |
| Treno MS, adult | €17.30 to €35 | €29 to €61.50 | €34 to €81 | All of the above plus unlimited trains |
| Treno MS, family 2+1 | €43.70 to €91.50 | €67.10 to €159 | €89.10 to €210.50 | As above |
One oddity worth knowing before you buy. The shop’s catalogue still lists separate “Trekking with Via dell’Amore” and “MS with Via dell’Amore” products at resident and non-resident prices. A one-day adult non-resident version costs €17.50. They sit alongside the plain cards that the park says already include the path. I couldn’t establish whether those are a genuine upgrade or a leftover from the old Plus structure. Buy the plain card, then book your slot, and if the checkout won’t let you book, that’s when you go back for the other one. Where a hiking day sits in the rest of your budget is covered in what an Italy trip actually costs.
Is the Card Worth It When Half the Trail Is Shut?
For a pure walking day with the northern sections closed, usually not. Strip it back and a €15 Trekking Card buys you access to 1.1 km of clifftop path with a timed slot on it. That’s a poor deal, and no guide I found says so.
The honest case for the card is everything else in it. Cardholders walk the Cinque Terre Walking Park programme free: 161 activities between May 1 and October 31, 2026, made up of 88 guided visits, 60 treks, 10 e-bike outings and 3 snorkelling sessions (park announcement, April 21, 2026). You also get the village buses, station toilets and reduced museum entry. And the money goes somewhere visible: the park returned €2.4 million of 2025 card revenue to the five comuni for safety and maintenance (ANSA, July 2025).
The Treno MS Card is a different question, and it’s mostly a train question. The Cinque Terre Express runs roughly every 20 minutes between Levanto, the five villages and La Spezia, with singles at €5, €8 or €10 by band (Trenitalia, 2026). Work out how many hops you’ll make, compare, and remember the card covers the trails too. I ran that arithmetic in full in our comparison of the two coasts, and the prices in it are being updated to match this scan.
Two cases where you skip the card entirely. In winter, outside the season, the trails are free and no card is required. And if you’re only walking the inland and high routes, you never pass a checkpoint, because those trails aren’t ticketed at all. This is regional-train territory either way, which our guide to getting around Italy explains better than any car rental will.
How Do You Book the Via dell’Amore?
Buy a card, then book a free 15-minute slot. The card alone won’t get you through the gate, and this trips up more people than any other rule on this coast.
The mechanics are fixed and the park publishes them. Entry is at Riomaggiore and the path runs one way to Manarola, 900 m of walkway cut into the cliff between 1926 and 1928. Groups of 100 go through every 15 minutes, which is 400 people an hour, and you get 30 minutes to cover it. Miss your slot and there’s tolerance into later ones until they fill (park, Via dell’Amore rules and FAQ, September 2026).
Hours follow the season. Through October 24, 2026 it’s 9am to 9pm with last entry at 8.30pm. From October 26, 2026 to March 28, 2027 it’s 9am to 6pm with last entry at 5.30pm. Residents of Riomaggiore, Vernazza and Monterosso walk it free from 7.30am and in both directions. Children under 4 and disabled visitors with certification go free.
There are two shops, which nobody explains. The park’s own sells the cards with the slot booking attached. The Comune di Riomaggiore’s sells bundles instead. Via dell’Amore plus a Trekking Card runs from €10, €17 or €23.50 for one, two or three days, with entry to Riomaggiore Castle thrown in. Via dell’Amore plus a Train Card runs from €22, €36.50 or €49. There is no standalone Via dell’Amore ticket any more. If you’ve read that there is, you’re reading something written before the restructure.
One more mechanic that matters when the weather turns. The park’s shop lets you change your card’s date once, within 24 hours of the start date, and only within the same tariff band. That’s the whole flexibility. It’s the same named, timed, non-transferable logic that now governs Pompeii’s tickets, and the same logic behind most of the booking traps worth knowing before you pay anything.
Which Rules Decide Whether You Walk at All?
Three rules decide whether you walk, and only one of them is about you.
The first is direction. On the busiest dates the park runs the Monterosso to Vernazza section one way, in that direction only, until 2pm. In 2026 that covered April 4, 5 and 6, May 1 and 2, May 14, May 30 and 31, and June 1. The park’s reasoning is worth quoting because it’s unusually candid: over 70% of hikers walk that way anyway, and the path narrows to single file in places between centuries-old dry-stone walls. People counters decide which dates qualify, and staffed info points go up at Monterosso’s old station and Corone, and at Vernazza’s Via Roma and Lama (park notice, April 3, 2026).
The second is footwear. Flip-flops, backless sandals and smooth soles are banned on marked park trails, and staff can stop you, refuse you access and fine you on the spot. Fines start at €50. Press coverage through 2026 has put the ceiling at €2,500 for repeat offenders or trail damage. I couldn’t trace that figure to the park’s own ordinance. Treat €50 as the number you can count on and the rest as reported. Closed shoes with a grippy sole are the requirement, and our season-by-season packing list covers what passes.
The third is weather, and it’s the one that will actually ruin your day. Under an orange alert from the regional civil protection service, the park closes the entire trail network and suspends sales of every Cinque Terre Card, Train and Trekking, online and at the desks. Under a yellow alert it asks hikers not to start and anyone already out to return to the villages. After each alert, geologists inspect and sections stay shut until they’re cleared (park notice, September 16, 2026).
How often does that happen? I counted the park’s own bulletin. In the 28 days from August 20 to September 16, 2026 it posted three orange alerts, three yellow alerts, one section closure, one reopening and one blanket closure of the northern coast path. Earlier in the season it shut Monterosso to Vernazza on February 11 and the Manarola end of the Via dell’Amore on February 16, reopening both on March 20 along with the Volastra route. That is not an unlucky autumn. That’s the normal operating rhythm of a cliff path in Liguria, and when you go changes your odds more than anything else you control.
The seven rules, in one place:
- The coast path is four sections and the park closes them individually, often at a day’s notice.
- A one-day Trekking Card is €10 or €15, not €7.50.
- The Via dell’Amore is included in both cards but still needs a booked 15-minute slot.
- The Via dell’Amore runs one way, Riomaggiore to Manarola.
- On peak dates Monterosso to Vernazza is one way until 2pm.
- Flip-flops and smooth soles are banned, with fines from €50.
- An orange alert closes the whole network and stops card sales.
Which Trails Are Open When the Coast Path Shuts?
The inland and high routes, and they’re free. The park’s network runs to more than 130 km, and the ticketed coast sections are a small slice of it. Nobody checks a card on the rest because there’s no card to check.
The substitute for the closed Manarola to Corniglia section goes up and over, and the park itself names the line: Corniglia to Case Pianca to Volastra to Manarola. You climb out of Manarola on trail 506, which passes through Volastra on its way to the ridge. Then 586 runs from Volastra’s Madonna della Salute church through the vineyards to Case Pianca, 2.377 km in 50 minutes. From there 587 drops into Corniglia. Reckon on two and a half hours and be honest with yourself about the climb: 506 gains 635 m over its full length (park, trail 506, September 2026). A bus runs Manarola to Volastra if you’d rather start at the top.
Worth knowing: 586’s own trail card still carries a closure notice dated November 17, 2025, while the park’s news page reopened it on March 20, 2026 (park notice). That’s the same lag I hit on the coast path, on a different page. Check both.
North of Monterosso, 590 runs out to Sant’Antonio and Punta Mesco in 1 hour 15, and 591 carries on down to Levanto in another 2 hours 15. That’s the walk I’d take on a busy Saturday.
South of Riomaggiore, the open stretch of 593 climbs to Telegrafo in 1 hour 45. A separate section of the same trail is closed, so read the card before you commit.
Above Monterosso, 509 climbs 468 m to the Soviore sanctuary in 1 hour 45. It’s the oldest path in Liguria, first recorded in 1225. The park rebuilt about 130 linear metres of its dry-stone walls this month, some 350 m² of masonry in the Balanello section (park notice, September 3, 2026). The whole ridge is strung together by the AV5T, trail 598, running from Portovenere along the tops in stages of roughly three hours each.
| Trail | Route | Length | Time | Grade | Card |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 506 + 586 + 587 | Manarola to Volastra to Case Pianca to Corniglia | 586 leg 2.377 km | about 2 h 30 total | E, a real climb | Free |
| 590 + 591 | Monterosso to Punta Mesco to Levanto | two legs | 1 h 15 + 2 h 15 | E | Free |
| 593 | Riomaggiore to Telegrafo, open stretch | n/a | 1 h 45 | E | Free |
| 509 | Monterosso to the Soviore sanctuary | 2.467 km, +468 m | 1 h 45 up, 1 h down | E | Free |
| 530 | Telegrafo to Volastra, the Sanctuaries road | n/a | 2 h 40 | T, the easy one | Free |
| 598 (AV5T) | Portovenere along the ridge | section it | 3 h 20, 2 h 40, 3 h 15 | E | Free |
Here’s the contrarian bit, and I’ll stand behind it. On a busy day the coast path is the worst walk in the Cinque Terre. It’s queued, it’s single file in the pinch points, and half of it is other people’s backpacks. The sanctuary trails and the ridge are better hiking, emptier, free, and they give you the view the coast path is inside of rather than looking at.
How Hard Is Cinque Terre Hiking, Really?
Harder than the photographs suggest. Both open coast sections are graded EE, for experienced hikers, and the rescue figures suggest plenty of people arrive expecting a promenade with a gelato at the end.
The park logged 79 mountain-rescue call-outs on its network in 2025, taking close to 1,000 person-hours. It renewed its Alpine Rescue agreement for 2026 at about €50,000, with over €10,000 of that going to emergency signage (park announcement, January 23, 2026). In September 2026 it added €113,000 more: €53,000 for roughly 300 geolocated emergency markers, 50 already installed, and €60,000 for a rescue vehicle based in Vernazza (park announcement, September 2, 2026).
Those markers are the single most useful thing on the trail and almost nobody knows what they are. Each carries a code and a QR. If something goes wrong you give the code to 112 and they know exactly where you are. Scan it yourself and it confirms your position and the distance left to walk. They’re going in on five routes: Corniglia to Pianca to Volastra to Manarola, the Beccara between Manarola and Riomaggiore, Fossola to Monesteroli to Campiglia, Riomaggiore to Telegrafo, and Punta Mesco to Monterosso to Levanto to Colla di Gritta. What the emergency call itself looks like is covered in our guide to staying safe in Italy.
The terrain does the rest. Rain leaves these paths slick for days, and the park says so in its own notices rather than waiting for you to find out. Summer brings heat warnings and a fire-prevention presence that ran to September 15 this year and covers weekends into mid-November. Steps, exposure and loose stone are the common factors in the call-outs, not dramatic falls.
The Crowd Rules Coming in January
From January 1, 2027, guided groups in Vernazza are capped at 25 people, radioguides with earpieces become compulsory above ten, and megaphones and voice amplifiers are banned outright.
The detail sits in a revised Article 68 of the comune’s regulations. Children under six don’t count towards the 25, school groups are exempt, and so is simple boarding and disembarking from buses and boats. Named streets in the village are closed to organised groups for stopping and, in some cases, for passing through at all. Riomaggiore trialled the approach first and the three comuni are working towards the same rules (Il Fatto Quotidiano, May 13, 2026). I’d want to read the comune’s own act before treating any single number as final, and I’ll update this when I have it.
What does it mean for you? If you’re walking alone or with friends, almost nothing. It’s a rule about tour groups, and the honest read is that it changes your day only if you’re in one. If you are, ask your operator now whether they’re compliant for 2027 dates. And if the crowding is putting you off entirely, sleeping inland works. Genoa is about 90 minutes up the coast by regional train, and it gets you a working city instead of a cliff village. Our guide to Italy’s underrated cities makes the case for it. The nightly tourist tax in each village is in our tourist tax tracker, and the coast sits inside the wider picture in our destinations pillar.
The Five-Minute Check Before You Walk
Check four things in this order, the morning you walk, not the night before.
Start with the alert level at allertaliguria.regione.liguria.it, because an orange alert makes everything below it irrelevant. Then the park’s news bulletin at parconazionale5terre.it for closures and reopenings. Then the individual trail card for the section you actually want, which is the page that carries the section-level detail like “in from Via Corone”. Then the shop, if you’re buying that morning, because during an orange alert it simply won’t sell you a card.
When they disagree, as they did for me on September 20, assume the most restrictive one is what you’ll meet at the gate. The bulletin is the park speaking in the present tense; the trail cards lag. And if the day is written off, remember you can move your card’s date once, within 24 hours, inside the same band.
Then there’s the plan B that always works. Take the train to Levanto or Portovenere and walk in from the free end of the network. Nobody checks a card, the paths are open when the coast is shut, and you’ll see more of Liguria than the queue between Vernazza and Monterosso will show you. If you’re still building the wider route, our Italy itinerary guide has the shape of it, and first-timer mistakes covers the rest. One thing I’d rule out: driving. The villages have almost no parking and our driving guide explains why the train wins here by a distance.
Skiing in Italy for the coming season and the Italy festival calendar are both live. For Venice on the water, the gondola, vaporetto and water taxi price guide is already live.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you hike between all five Cinque Terre villages?
Not at the moment. The coast path splits into four sections and on September 20, 2026 two were shut: Manarola to Corniglia, closed by landslide and still at design stage, and the Corniglia to Vernazza to Monterosso stretch, closed on September 10 pending geological checks (park notice, September 2026). Inland routes connect the villages instead.
Do you need a Cinque Terre Card to hike?
Only for the coast sections and the Via dell’Amore. The inland and high routes, including 587 and 586 through Volastra and 591 out to Punta Mesco, are free and unticketed, and they make up most of the park’s 130 km network. In winter, outside the card season, the coast trails are free too.
How much is the Cinque Terre Card?
On September 20, 2026 the park’s own shop sold a one-day adult Trekking Card at €10 or €15 by demand band, and a one-day Treno MS Card from €17.30 to €35 (Cinque Terre Card shop). The widely quoted €7.50 price was withdrawn when the park restructured the card in March 2026.
Do you have to book the Via dell’Amore if you have a card?
Yes. Access is included in both the Trekking and Train cards, but entry runs on booked 15-minute slots of 100 people, one way from Riomaggiore to Manarola, with 30 minutes to walk the 900 m (park, Via dell’Amore rules, September 2026). The card alone will not open the gate.
What happens if the trails close after you have bought a card?
The park’s shop allows one date change, within 24 hours of the start date and inside the same tariff band. During an orange alert the park closes the network and suspends card sales entirely. Beyond that single date change, the park promises no refund for weather closures.
The Bottom Line
Treat Cinque Terre hiking as a network with a weather problem, not as a walk with a view, and it becomes a good destination again.
- Four sections, not one hike, and the park closes them individually.
- €10 or €15 for a Trekking Card, €17.30 to €35 for the train version. Not €7.50.
- Book the Via dell’Amore slot even with a card in your hand.
- Check the alert level first, the bulletin second, the trail card third.
- The free inland and ridge routes are better hiking and they’re open more often.
Check the park’s bulletin the morning you walk. If the coast path is shut, take the train to Levanto and come in over Punta Mesco instead.
