A kilometre of paved ledge cut into the cliff between Riomaggiore and Manarola, with the sea below and the rock overhead. Closed for twelve years after a rockfall, reopened with booked one-way slots, and the easiest and most romantic twenty minutes in the Cinque Terre.
The Via dell'Amore was never meant to be a tourist path. It was cut into the cliff in the 1920s during works on the railway between Riomaggiore and Manarola, and the two villages, until then separated by a steep climb over the hill, began to use it.
Its name, legend says, came from the couples from the two villages who met halfway along it. In the decades that followed it became the most famous walk on the coast, lined with benches, tunnels of rock and, eventually, thousands of padlocks clipped to the railings by visiting couples. In September 2012 a rockfall injured four walkers and the path was closed. Twelve years of slope stabilisation followed, with nets, anchors and a new rock-protection gallery, and it reopened in 2024.
It came back with rules. Numbers are now capped and the walk is one way only, from Riomaggiore to Manarola, in booked half-hour slots with your name on the ticket. That has made it calmer than it has been in decades. It is the only stretch of the coastal path open in autumn 2026, and the only one flat and paved enough for a pushchair.
Book online through the Cinque Terre National Park before you arrive, especially for weekends, holidays and summer evenings.
Each ticket carries your name and a half-hour entry slot. You enter at the Riomaggiore end, by the station, within your slot and walk at your own pace to Manarola. There is no walking back the other way.
The supplement is lowest if you already hold a Cinque Terre Trekking or Treno card for the day, and higher bought on its own. Prices follow the park's green, yellow and red day pricing, so peak weekends cost more.
Open 9am to 9pm in the main season and 9am to 6pm from late October to late March. The path closes in bad weather and after civil-protection alerts, like the rest of the network.
The path begins beside Riomaggiore's railway station, past the café bar A Piè de Mà carved into the rock. Show your ticket at the gate; the first metres cross the new protective gallery built to shield walkers from falling stones.
The path runs almost level along the cliff some 20 to 30 metres above the water, with views across to Manarola and back along the coast to Portovenere's headland. There are benches, a short tunnel and the railings where the padlocks used to hang. Agaves flower on the rocks in spring.
The path ends above Manarola's station. Walk down through the tunnel into the village, then out to the harbour and up the Punta Bonfiglio path for the postcard view of the village.
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Ideas from our Cinque Terre guide: book a late slot and walk into Manarola for sunset.
A café bar carved into the rock by the station, with a terrace over the water: the aperitivo spot before your slot.
The open-air bar on the headland facing the village, which turns gold and pink as the sun sets. Ten minutes from the end of the path.
Evenings in the guide →A terrace over the roofs and a procession of seafood antipasti. Or a cone of fried anchovies on the harbour wall for a tenth of the price.
The food guide →
Continue from Manarola up to Volastra and through the vineyards to Corniglia.
The coastal Blue Path from Monterosso to Vernazza and Corniglia.
Five pilgrim paths, one up from each village, to churches with the coast at their feet.
The high ridge from Portovenere to Levanto, and the headland walk over Punta Mesco.
A three-hour walk round the island facing Portovenere, with a swim at Pozzale.
The old coastal railway through tunnels with windows on the sea.
Wikimedia Commons photographs are used under their Creative Commons licences; Pexels photographs under the Pexels licence. Click a title for the original, its author and licence.
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