A century-old rock pathway clinging to one of the world’s most picturesque coastlines has re-opened after a 12-year closure for repairs. The 900-metre Via dell’Amore, or “Path of Love”, winding along Italy’s iconic Cinque Terre cliffs might now be one of the most expensive stretches of footpath anywhere, having cost 22 million euros to make safe.
Lovers’ meeting point
The path came into existence as a rail workers’ access path, hewn out of the Ligurian cliffs during work on a tunnel for the Genoa and La Spezia railway in the early 20th century. It earnt its “Path of Love” moniker due to rumours that lovers from the two villages it links – Riomaggiore and Manarola – used it as a meeting point.
That romantic provenance and its location amid the five picture-perfect villages of the UNESCO-recognised Cinque Terre area made the path a must-do for tourists in northwestern Italy, until 1997 when a landslide injured four Australian visitors.
Like “the recovery of a work of art”
With the trail closed, the plan to rehabilitate it involved helicoptering in materials and encaging the rock cliffs around the path in stainless steel affixed with deep bolts. Specialists such as rock climbers had to be deployed to place equipment dangling on ropes and steel cables and attached to anchors.
“It was a job as complex as it was spectacular, carried out exactly like the recovery of a work of art of inestimable value, with the utmost protection and respect for the surrounding environment,” Giacomo Giampedrone, the works’ safety commissioner said.
That included the sowing of 8,800 plants to help shore up the landscape and the installation of a landslide monitoring system to provide advanced notice of potential danger.
Access fee
More than a decade of closure and two years since engineering works started in 2022, the path is now open again, but until 8 August 2024 it will only be accessible to residents of the Cinque Terre, Levanto, La Spezia and former residents and owners of second homes in the Municipality of Riomaggiore and their families.
After the initial, residents-only opening period, tourists and hikers will be able to visit the Via dell’Amore once more, from 9 August 2024. Anyone wanting to visit must reserve in advance and pay a €10 tourist fee.
One-way only
To mitigate crowding and risks to the natural heritage and to visitors, guides will be on hand and visitor numbers will be capped at 400 people per hour, with entry staggered at 15 minute intervals, according to the Municipality of Riomaggiore’s website. Note that the path is the first part of the longer, 12-kilometre Sentiero Azzuro, or ‘Blue Path’ connecting the five Cinque Terre villages. And there will be no chance of meeting your lover coming to meet you from the other direction, since the path will operate on a one-way basis from Riomaggiore.
But who needs love, when you have the thrill of this coastline? As Giampedrone said: “My invitation is to come to Liguria to admire the Via dell’Amore: let yourself be amazed by this unique place, suspended between the sky and the sea, set in the rock, in the heart of a natural paradise. You will be left breathless by its beauty.”
