Cinque Terra - one way walking only

[Marbe2]

Italian hiking trails to be one-way only

Visitors will also be charged €15 to embark on the ‘sentiero azzurro’ hike in the Cinque Terre to tackle overcrowding

www.telegraph.co.uk

 

[Kathar1na]

Italian hiking trails to be one-way only

Visitors will also be charged €15 to embark on the ‘sentiero azzurro’ hike in the Cinque Terre to tackle overcrowding

www.telegraph.co.uk

I cannot read the Telegraph article because it is behind a paywall.

There is an article with similar content on Msn.com. It says: "The restrictions apply on April 25, 26, 27 and 28 as well as May 1".

This is the same period when it is "High Noon" on the Camino Francés section SJPP to Pamplona. A very popular time to travel and go for a walk.

Just curious: How long is the footpath in km that links these villages, i.e. the "sentiero azzurro" in this National Park in Italy?

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/travel/news/italian-hiking-trails-to-be-one-way-only/ar-AA1nspRo

 

[Kathar1na]

Link to the prices for the Cinque Terre Trekking Card that give access to all footpaths and costs for one day 7,50 euros or 15,00 euros on high peak days inside the Cinque Terre National Park. It does not seem to be anything new?

https://www.cinqueterre.eu.com/en/cinque-terre-card

 

[J Willhaus]

I haven't been there for more than 20 years now, but I don't remember paying to walk the walking path? I remember the train was reasonable though.

Phil and I are thinking of making a brief visit next winter before we walk some of the VF.

 

[Kathar1na]

I think that Cinque Terre is one of these places where tourism has become unsustainable because of the very high numbers of visitors.

I see headlines like "Increasingly unsustainable tourism in the Cinque Terre where, by 2023, 4 million tourists were concentrated on an area of just 1 square kilometer. And in Liguria, necessary countermeasures are being studied."

Half a million spread out over the area of Galicia in 2023 is nothing is comparison.

I was going to write "half a million spread out over 800 km in 2023" but it would not have been accurate. in 2023, it was about 60,000 spread out over the 100 km between SJPP to Pamplona and about 200,000 spread out over the 100 km of the Camino Francés between Sarria and Santiago - this is still a far cry from the situation in Cinque Terre.

Of course, we have learnt recently that some Camino albergues will only accept pilgrims who walk in the direction of Santiago and not in the other direction ...

 

[roving_rufus]

I had kind of read up on the Cinque Terre recently as I am planning on the Via della Costa to Rome next year.

Currently 2 paths require payment to use in the main season- the others do not currently, (though one is closed as well). In winter there is no charge. And the official website is regularly updated with closures eg to a mudslide etc- and it does note one path is one-directional for a few days at the end of April/early May.

https://www.cinqueterre.eu.com/en/footpaths-cinqueterre

 

[roving_rufus]

Also the dates relate to 2 public holidays in Italy- 25th April and 1st May and so a popular holiday period is based around them. Hence the one-way instruction for one path that is very popular in Cinque Terre Park.

 

[Marbe2]

I have hiked this route many times. It is the blue path #2 from Monterossa heading southeast to Vernazza. It is approximately a 12 km section. It is a hilly and rocky section in part and also narrow in parts. The trail between Riomaggiore and Manarola (Via dell'Amore) and Manarola to Corniglia are closed due to a landslide and are planned to reopen in July 2024. However there are upper trails as well which one can navigate or opt to take a ferry between the towns, or take a train. I have hiked between Vernazza and Monterrosa the second week of May, after the holidays, and it was very busy, but not out of control.

Venice is imposing fees on weekends for groups to control the traffic. So this is not a shock. just be warned if you are traveling on those dates.


Partof the article

Tourists charged €15​

Hikers who want to tackle the Cinque Terre’s celebrated “sentiero azzurro” or blue footpath will have to start in the village of Monterosso and head east towards the hamlet of Vernazza.
Doing the walk the other way round will not be permitted. There will be checkpoints manned by police and national park officials.
“Attention, mandatory one way on the path from Monterosso to Vernazza,” reads a notice on the Cinque Terre National Park’s website.

Checkpoints will be manned by police and national park officials CREDIT: Andia/Universal Images Group Editorial
The restrictions apply on April 25, 26, 27 and 28 as well as May 1.
Tourists will also have to pay €15 to embark on the hike.
“We are trying to manage the influx of people on the paths so as to protect the environment of the area and also the safety of visitors,” said Donatella Bianchi, the head of the national park authority.

 

[JabbaPapa]

Link to the prices for the Cinque Terre Trekking Card that give access to all footpaths and costs for one day 7,50 euros or 15,00 euros on high peak days inside the Cinque Terre National Park. It does not seem to be anything new?

https://www.cinqueterre.eu.com/en/cinque-terre-card

I did read the Telegraph article this morning, and they put up a sensationalist title for it grossly exaggerating the effects and extent of the local policy, suggesting for example that "Italy" has decreed it.

I cannot pretend that I support this sort of initiative -- but if you look into the detail of the article, the one-way-street part of it is set in place over a small number of days in April to May.

Pilgrim-wise, those particular trails might be beautiful -- but the local Camino/Via Romea (either historical or hiking trail) simply does not descend into the Cinque Terre, so that this should affect over 99.9% of pilgrims not in the slightest.

Sure, there may be odd exceptions of pilgrims with local attachments/friends/family. Last time I walked to Rome there was a great deal of personal consideration locally, there's the tarmac down into the villages if a tariff for hiking is something you object to, and anyway walking down from and then back again up into the mountain terrain overlooking the Cinque Terre is basically a detour. If that's the sort of detour people like, then fair enough and go for it !!

But similar to Monte-Carlo on the French Riviera, the Cinque Terre are a detour from the Way, except when it's for personal & local reasons.

 

[Marbe2]

But similar to Monte-Carlo on the French Riviera, the Cinque Terre are a detour from the Way, except when it's for personal & local reasons.

detour from The Way? Which one… all roads lead to…?

 

[JabbaPapa]

Of course, we have learnt recently that some Camino albergues will only accept pilgrims who walk in the direction of Santiago and not in the other direction ...

I have stayed in literally hundreds of Albergues over the course of my ongoing very lengthy home to home Camino, and that's actually not true -- but some Albergues do refuse to accept hikers who have no purpose towards Compostela and who are also not walking in the slightest to or via the Cathedral.

If your walk is from Santiago and is genuinely a part of your pilgrimage, then it is vanishingly rare for there to be any kind of problem.

 

[JabbaPapa]

detour from The Way? Which one… all roads lead to…?

When you walk in that area towards Rome or towards Santiago on the coastal Ligurian route, going down to the Cinque Terre leads you away from your destination and not towards it.

The Cinque Terre are a beautiful cul-de-sac, but geographically they simply are not on the Camino, nor the road to Rome (unless that's where you're starting from).

I guess the one major exception would be if you are doing a maritime pilgrimage, in which case those villages would most certainly be along your Way !!

 

[Kathar1na]

I have stayed in literally hundreds of Albergues over the course of my ongoing very lengthy home to home Camino, and that's actually not true

You must have missed the thread. It is true for a section of the Mozarabe if I remember correctly. The thread can be easily found by anyone who is interested. And you may have missed that I wrote "some albergues". It is only a handful.

I understand the OP's post as an example of "massification" and the only parallel, if one wants to see one, is the fact that there is also talk about massification on the Camino Francés. It is not about pilgrimage trails as such.

 

[Camino Chrissy]

Another way to see the beautiful Cinque Terre is by ferry that takes you to each village one at a time on a long day; spending a couple of hours at each one.
I had read a while back that there were going to be some restrictions imposed; similar to what other tourist destinations are now doing; Venice being one.

 

[JabbaPapa]

You must have missed the thread.

I didn't.

The people in question had not walked and were not walking the Way of Saint James. Their direction of travel was incidental, even though hikers not walking to Santiago but in that direction are given the benefit of doubt by those Albergues with stricter rules.