After a long dry spell, the Path of Love is reopening.
We're not trying to be poetic here. The actual walkway known as the Path of Love—or Via dell'Amore in Italian—is finally becoming fully accessible again to visitors in the Cinque Terre, which is the string of colorful villages clinging dramatically to cliffs along a stretch of northwestern Italy's Ligurian coast.
The seaside route connects the villages of Riomaggiore (pictured above) and Manarola via a curving, roughly 1km (0.6-mile) paved path that has been closed since 2012. A landslide in September of that year injured four tourists, reports the BBC, prompting officials to close the trail for extensive repairs.
After a portion of the Via dell'Amore reopened last summer as a preview, the whole thing will finally welcome trekkers back on Saturday, July 27—nearly a dozen years after the closure.
(Via dell'Amore trail in the Cinque Terre region of Italy | Credit: Lisa A / Shutterstock)
How the Cinque Terre's Via dell'Amore Trail Has Been Repaired
What took so long?
"Have you seen Liguria?" Italy's tourism minister, Daniela Santanchè, told the BBC. "It’s a thin region rising steeply from the sea. We had to harness the entire mountain, and make sure everything was completely safe."
That involved containing the rocks above and below the pathway with steel mesh and planting 8,800 plants to reinforce the landscape, according to Euronews. A monitoring system was also installed to warn about potential landslides in the future.
The project ultimately cost a total of €22 million ($24 million).
The Via dell'Amore's History: From Access Road for Railroad Workers to Path of Love
As the BBC explains, the Via dell'Amore was never intended as a tourist attraction when it was carved out of the rock face more than a century ago. Instead, the path was built to accommodate railroad workers digging train tunnels nearby.
Eventually, the walkway supposedly became a site for romantic rendezvous for people from the two villages the trail connects. Somebody scrawled "Via dell'Amore" on a rock, and presto! You've got yourself the world's most scenic lovers' lane.
How to Visit the Via dell'Amore Today
As the Cinque Terre's fame grew, so did crowds, and the national park that encompasses the towns became one of many photogenic Italian destinations struggling to cope with a huge influx of visitors.
In addition to establishing hefty fines for bad tourist behavior, Cinque Terre officials have attempted to curb overcrowding on the national park's 48 hiking trails by requiring the purchase of a pass to access certain areas.
Similarly, strolling the Via dell'Amore will require buying a ticket online or at the park's ticket booths when the route reopens July 27. The number of hourly visitors on the trail will be capped at 400.
The official booking site still hasn't been updated as of this writing, but when the first part of the Via dell'Amore opened in 2023, per Euronews, tickets cost €5 ($5.42) apiece and included admission to the Castle of Riomaggiore.
