The Via dell’Amore — the most famous part of the Cinque Terre — was closed in September 2012 because of a rock slide. Since then, we have watched countless tourists arrive in one of the two towns the walkway used to connect (Riomaggiore and Manarola), stop speechless in front of the chained gates, and complain, “Oh no, I can’t believe it’s closed!”
The truth is that as of now, November 2015, it remains closed, and has no real prospects of being reopened even next season. (And don’t be fooled by the “reopening” of a piece of the trail earlier this 2015: it is a fairly insignificant 300 yard piece they opened … and then you hit the chained gates again. It was a political move, and the reopening was a big affair for the prevailing political party in Liguria … happily, their candidate was rightfully defeated in elections a few months later.)
The good news? The Via dell’Amore was never really the best part of the Cinque Terre. There’s much better hiking and much better views to be found. But just for the sake of transparency: don’t plan on hitting this trail during your trip to these parts in 2016.
