Cinque Terre, after twelve years the Via dell'Amore reopens

After twelve years, the Via dell’Amore, one of Italy’s most beautiful cliffside paths, reopens today. Due to a landslide, the Via dell’Amore, just over 900 meters long and located in the heart of the Cinque Terre, linking the villages of Riomaggiore and Manarola, had in fact been closed in 2012; finally as of Saturday, July 27, 2024, it is once again passable.

The Via was the subject of a very complex safety and upgrading intervention, carried out by the Liguria Region, which heads the government commissioner structure against hydrogeological instability, in collaboration with the Municipality of Riomaggiore, the Cinque Terre National Park, the Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio and the Port Authority. The total investment has exceeded 23 million euros: the Region of Liguria, the largest funder, has allocated 12 million euros, while the Ministry of Culture has contributed 6.9 million, the Ministry of the Environment 3 million and the Civil Defense 1.5 million. Work on the reopening was complex from an engineering standpoint because of the fragility of the natural setting, as it is embedded in the cliff rock. Work on the trail and slopes began on January 14, 2022, and was completed on July 19, 2024. Specialized firms worked on site using helicopters to transport materials, lay stainless steel mesh, and perform deep nailing of various lengths. Rock climbers, suspended by ropes and steel ropes from special anchors, moved equipment along the walls.

From Saturday, July 27 to Thursday, August 8, 2024 inclusive, the Via dell’Amore will be accessible only to residents of Cinque Terre, Levanto, La Spezia, and former residents and owners of second homes in the municipality of Riomaggiore and their family members. Starting Friday, August 9, 2024, access will instead also be open to tourists, but only by reservation and for a fee, with therequirement to be accompanied by guides. Access for tourists will be limited to a maximum of 400 people per hour, divided into groups of 100 people every 15 minutes. The route will be one-way, with entrance only from Riomaggiore to Manarola.

Statements

“This enchanting route, a symbol of beauty and romance, is finally accessible again, ready to welcome visitors from all over the world again,” commented Tourism Councillor Augusto Sartori. “In recent years, Liguria has seen a significant increase in foreign tourists, a phenomenon we can proudly attribute to the effective tourism promotion strategies implemented by our region. The reopening of the Via dell’Amore will significantly contribute to consolidating Liguria as a leading tourist destination, capable of attracting and captivating international visitors, who have always shown great love for this unique route. We wanted to organize this festive evening designed exclusively for the area, featuring the inhabitants of Riomaggiore and Manarola, along with the workers who have worked over the years on this incredible work.”

“Twelve long years of closure of the Via dell’Amore, substantial resources allocated to its safety and rehabilitation. A strong hope and patient waiting of an entire community. Today we are all writing together a new page in the history of our territory,” commented Donatella Bianchi, president of the Cinque Terre National Park. “A goal shared with conviction by the Region, the Park and the Municipality of Riomaggiore. A proactive commitment to remember the fragility of this area and an opportunity for highly innovative companies to demonstrate capacity to develop new sustainable methods of intervention, respectful of a delicate environment protected by a National Park, a Marine Reserve, and a UNESCO Site. The Love Street is a symbol of a tenacious and resilient community. Its name a message for the future. Now it is up to all of us to preserve it in the best way, in the most responsible and sustainable enjoyment, so that the memory of these rocks can continue to show beauty from generation to generation. It is with this purpose that, together with Scuola Holden, the Park from today kicks off an innovative experiential narrative of this stretch of coastline, with the aim of engaging tourists in a unique dimension of maturity, awareness and respect. Panels along the trail will transport visitors on an immersive journey through podcasts that will tell the birth of this trail that is an ode to encounter, to love. Through spoken word, references to the geological landscapes that can be admired here will be shared. An intervention that represents a first piece of storytelling that will touch on the Park’s rich hiking network with its 130 kilometers of trails from east to west, from the coast to the ridge. It begins with the Via dell’Amore, but goes on to reawaken the many stories that inhabit this territory-even those precious ones that are still little known.”

“The Via dell’Amore today returns to citizens and tourists-again passable after 12 years since the 2012 landslide, safely, thanks to a long and complicated construction site-and this inauguration is an opportunity to propose a radical change: to transform the entire route into an internationally recognized open-air museum. Not only restore the route, but revive the spirit that led to its creation almost a hundred years ago. A road to connect, to relate, and so yes, even ’of love’, by systematizing the different points of cultural interest in the territory,” said Fabrizia Pecunia, mayor of Riomaggiore, “to transform this iconic path into the model of a conscious tourism, for the community and tourists to protect the fragile territory and the identity of the Cinque Terre.”

Cinque Terre, after twelve years the Via dell'Amore reopens

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