Stifling though the crowds of tourists can be at the height of summer, a hint of love is in the air across the five villages of Italy’s Cinque Terre as a Ligurian riviera coastal path famed as a meeting point for courting couples reopens after an almost 12-year closure.
Sculpted into the steep cliffs wedged between the villages of Riomaggiore and Manarola, the Via dell’Amore (Path of Love) had been closed since being damaged by a September 2012 landslide that injured four Australian tourists.
It reopens to residents on Saturday, and to tourists from 9 August.
The paved path is only about 900 metres long, but with its breathtaking views of the rugged coast, it is perhaps the most popular of the 48 trails that run through the villages of the Cinque Terre, a Unesco world heritage site.
The restoration works were a labour of love, too, costing €22m and involving building a system of steel harnesses and netting to secure the rocks above and below the path.
“The reopening has been eagerly awaited by everyone here,” said Fabrizia Pecunia, the mayor of Riomaggiore and Manarola. “The path has always represented a landmark for us. There is a feeling of great satisfaction after all the hard work.”
Pecunia concedes, however, that in the lead-up to the reopening there were concerns about the effects that the hyped-up image of romanticism may have on a hotspot already struggling with overcrowding.
Before its closure, more than 850,000 visitors would stroll along the path every year, with many carving their names or messages of love into the cliff walls.
The ritual was tolerated, but that was back in 2011, before the era of rampant Insta-tourism. The site attracted a record 4 million visitors last year.
The newly restored Via dell’Amore comes with restrictions. Not only will writing on the walls be banned, but visitors will need to pay to walk along it, at least before 7pm. The path is accessible with the purchase of a daily Cinque Terre card, paying a €10 supplement on top of the standard €7.50, or €15 on peak days, which gives access to all footpaths. There will be time-slotted guided tours with groups of no more than 10 people every 15 minutes.
Pecunia said the guides were intended to give walkers better knowledge about the path and awareness about the wider Cinque Terre – which also includes Monterosso, Vernazza and Corniglia – and its community.
Before the railway connecting the five villages was built in 1874, travelling from one to another involved steep mountain climbs. Few ventured by boat, especially because the sea was the target of persistent pirate attacks. This meant that the communities of the Cinque Terre had little contact with each other.
The initial idea for Via dell’Amore had nothing to do with love. During the blasting of a second train line in the 1920s, a rudimentary path was made to allow labourers to carry materials as well as create a warehouse used to store gunpowder.
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But then the determined residents of Riomaggiore and Manarola saw an opportunity for the path to be extended between the two towns, and came together to build it, many of them working for free. Pecunia’s grandfather was among them. They called it Strada Nuova (New Road).
The path was closed off during the second world war, but after reopening it became established as a meeting point for lovers from the two villages.
It was renamed Via dell’Amore after someone wrote the words, with chalk, on the door of what was the gunpowder warehouse. The writing was spotted by Paolo Monelli, a journalist with Corriere della Sera holidaying in Cinque Terre, who in an article urged local authorities to rename the path.
“Via dell’Amore was built by our ancestors to connect the two communities,” said Pecunia. “It was an enormous feat, and so for us represents the strength and determination of the people here.”
The Ligurian regional authorities and the Italian tourist board were keen to make the most of the romanticism in their publicity campaign, placing at the path’s entrance a placard depicting Venus, the Roman goddess of love, as an influencer. But a proposal to host a “longest kiss” competition was flatly rejected by Pecunia, who feared it could trigger even bigger surge in the numbers of tourist only there to curate their social media profiles.
“Over my dead body,” she said. “Via dell’Amore is a beautiful spot but we are working with the national park to give it a more authentic image and are sure that in the future we’ll manage to market it in a way that creates better awareness.”