Sentiero Azzurro

The Sentiero Azzurro — Blue Path — is the famous coastal trail of Italy's Cinque Terre, a 12 km string of mule tracks, stone staircases, and vineyard terraces that links the five colourful fishing villages of Monterosso, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore. The villages were largely cut off from each other by road until well into the 20th century; the trail is the network of paths their inhabitants once used to walk to market and church.

The trail is walked in either direction but most hikers start at Monterosso in the north — it's the easiest village to reach by train from La Spezia or Genoa — and finish at Riomaggiore four to six hours later, with stops in each village for focaccia and a sea view. The Monterosso–Vernazza stretch is the most strenuous, climbing 200 m up a steep terrace path with the trail's best views back over the village's pastel rooftops. The Corniglia and Manarola sections are gentler, but the famous Via dell'Amore (Manarola–Riomaggiore) has been closed for landslide repair on and off since 2012 — check Cinque Terre National Park's official status page before walking. A Cinque Terre Card is required for the trail and gives you train hops between villages, useful for sectioning the walk.

The Blue Path is open most of the year, with spring (April–May) and autumn (September–October) the most pleasant — summer is hot, humid, and overrun. Landslides regularly close sections, sometimes for years at a time, and the trail surface ranges from level paving stones to steep rough steps with no guardrails above 100 m drops. Sturdy shoes are essential. The Cinque Terre is also part of the wider Sentiero Verde (Green Path) network of higher inland trails, which stay open when the Blue closes and offer panoramic views back down on the villages — worth considering on a return visit.