May / June 2026 Cinqueterre

Cinque Terre I’ve been thinking about this hike for several years and it finally fit in with other plans. The scenery is ravishing, especially the little ridge-top villages (not part of the five) and the five that are mostly next to the ocean. The trails are uniformly tough, reflecting the steep, rocky terrain. They were all badly damaged by the heavy rain and flooding a few years ago, and it’s easy to see why they were impossible to repair fully. It’s hard to believe they farm on such steep slopes! Below the trail are vegetable gardens, olive orchards and, almost everywhere, lush vineyards, many planted in narrow strips of dirt between rock retaining walls. The local wines, product of these vineyards, are excellent. But I wouldn’t want to tend these vines or harvest the grapes – even hiking the trails above the vineyards is an exercise in (barely) controlled vertigo. It took me a couple of days to figure out the small (about 4 inches square) red and white blazes, which can be anywhere, and not always at the intersection, and learn to use “Bike With GPS” (which I found much more difficult and awkward by far than Gaia was before it was acquired and profitized by Outside. Even under corporate downgrading Gaia is still much better than Bike With GPS.) I was blessed with weather, lows in the 60s, highs mostly mid-70s, cooling breezes, a couple of cloudy days, no rain. After the first couple of hikes I realized that I really should have done this when I was first thinking about it, before aging started cutting into my speed, stamina, and endurance. After the second day’s hike I was beginning to wonder if these steep trails were going to simply kick my butt! There are relatively level sections, mostly packed dirt, sometimes partly covered with leaves, often partly paved. Pleasant walking, but getting up to and down from the ridges is steep and often badly eroded. It has been fun now but would have been a lot more fun 5 or 6 years ago, even three years ago, when I hiked 10 days in the Dolomites. I’m glad I got to do it now! The condition of the trails varies a lot. Some parts are paved with grooved concrete, including stairs, longer parts paved with stones, only a few of which are anywhere near flat, so even when on “paved” portions it is necessary to think carefully about almost every step. Many of the stones are black and polished by many shoes (I think they may be very low grade marble.) Unsurprisingly, given the steep terrain, erosion is a big problem, often leaving stairs and stair risers orphaned – either go around them or take huge steps up and down (two feet or even more). I’ve been asked if I was hiking alone. The answer is: like the most popular Gorge trails, it is impossible on the main trails of Cinque Terre to be alone for more than a few minutes. I took one trail back from my first day hike that differed from the recommended trail and didn’t see any other hikers for about two hours, but the crowds are entirely on the primary trails. The quality of this alternative trail was similar to the main trails, except it had no concrete, no pavement until a few broken and eroded stairs at the end, entering town. There are many songbirds in the forest and it was nice to hear them without the constant tourist chatter. I expected the paved parts and even some of the packed dirt stretches to be gravelly and slippery but was pleasantly surprised – in six days’ hiking I skidded on loose gravel only twice, both times for less than a foot. I wouldn’t want to do the rocky parts in wet weather. For a celiac, Italy is rather frustrating, and the section I was hiking more so. Menus are heavily weighted toward pizza and pasta, and meat and fish are usually breaded and fried. For anyone with a healthy gut it would be a gourmet banquet – great bread, frito misto and other breaded dishes including calimari, many varieties of pasta. I was able to have some great meals, but it took a lot of time scanning menus. The best seafood I found was a “warm seafood salad” – squid, octopus, and mussels chopped up with some celery and tomatoes, and a few salted olives that seemed a little out of place. In Porto Venera a few ristorantes also served grilled squid and grilled mixed seafood, both excellent. These options replaced frito misto, the fried mixture of fish I loved so much when I first had it in Venice many years ago. The gelato is consistently good, though some of the servers have shorted me on scoops (curling the gelato into a hollow ball). I found a gelateria with licorizia (the root is grown in this region) – a pasty tan color, an earthy flavor not as sharp as anise. A rare treat – I haven’t seen licorice or anise ice cream in the U.S. in 30 years. I brought a swimsuit with me but made the mistake of not bringing sandals or water shoes and a sunshirt to wear in the water. I could have worn a cotton T-shirt to protect my back from the sun but I wasn’t that motivated to join the crowd in the water. I had a rather amusing “Death in Venice” experience while watching people trying to ride surfboards on the two foot shore break (two of them managed to get a few short rides). I felt a light touch on my butt, looked around and a fortyish guy was walking away. A few minutes later he came back and struck up a conversation, pointing to the rocks by the breakwater: “Is that the end of the beach?” “Yes, I think it’s cliffs beyond.” “I heard there is a naked beach somewhere.” "I haven’t the slightest notion” -- and I walked away. I suppose a MAGA type would have felt compelled to deck the guy – but I’ve no sympathy with the MAGA concept of manhood – and that would be somebody else’s movie. The hotel in Levanto doesn’t serve breakfast until 7:45, which meant getting on the trail after it’s already warming up, and doing most of the hiking during the heat of the day. I was tempted to skip breakfast for an earlier start, but in this bread-centric culture it would be difficult to find an adequate substitute for the eggs, yogurt, ham, cheese, and fruit salad served by the hotel. Fortunately it doesn’t get hot enough to be a problem and there’s been a breeze most afternoons. I don’t think I’d want to do this in July or August. By day four my legs were beginning to get used to the steep climbs and descents. This was the day for hiking the central trail, the string of cliff-hugging villages of Cinque Terre itself. Going was slow and I stopped frequently to admire the views and find a dish of ice cream in one of the villages. The sixth day’s hike took me up to the top of a ridge , along the ridge top, and gradually down. The next to last kilometer clings to an almost sheer cliff, with several dicey rock-climbs both down and up, above sheer drops. Some of these were on well-polished stone outcrops. I was too busy negotiating the footing to take any pictures. That section of trail is not for vertigo sufferers. I was afraid it might continue along the next cliff but to my great relief it swings around the more gradual slope to the left. The descent into town was still quite steep. In the photo to the right two of the three islands can be seen behind the headland and its vertical cliff. The trail ends with a (typically steep and eroded) descent into Porto Venera (named after Venus, the goddess with a ruined temple at the far end of town). Apparently Lord Byron swam from this spot across the gulf to visit a friend. The bottom of the trail leads past what is apparently the remains of an medieval city wall, ending in a plaza in front of the old fort I walked around the small village for a while, took pictures of the church, then the next day caught a ferry for the small island a couple hundred meters away. The hike around the island was very much like all the other trails, less pavement, more packed dirt, but steep and badly eroded ascents and descents. A marble quarry that is apparently no longer used was an interesting feature at the far end of the island, and on the way back I got some excellent photos of Porto Venere itself. It would be easy to criticize the condition of the trails, but having done a lot of trail work myself it was apparent to me that repairing the flood damage and improving the ascent and descent would take a massive effort, and in places liberal use of dynamite. The trails are passable by any reasonably fit and competent hiker, the most vertiginous stretches could probably be avoided by long detours, and it makes for a very satisfying week of strenuous hikes interspersed with rambling walks through the narrow streets of ancient villages.