Via Dell'Amore in Riomaggiore

We stop for lunch in the harbor at Riomaggiore, picking up two focacce, one with olives and one with tomato, and sitting on the wall outside the shop to dine.

Decending to the harbor

Dining view

We have purchased timed-entry tickets to Via dell'Amore, the 900 meter (0.56 mile) path along the cliff  between Riomaggiore and Manarola, excavated through and winding along the hard rock face overhanging the sea.  The Via dell'Amore path dates from the beginning of the 20th century, during the modernization of the Genoa-La Spezia railway line, when the footpath was created for the railroad workers to move between Riomaggiore and Manarola for construction of the tunnel between the villages.  A legend holds that this footpath also became a meeting place for lovers from the two villages.

The path reopened last year after being closed by a landslide on September 24, 2012, with the destruction later compounded by wave damage in 2018.  We enter and walk the path between the villages.

Starting along the path

Views of the water

Monterosso in the distance

Continuing along the path

Great sea water

Picture of the path at night

Displays of the story and history of the path

We continue along the cliff to Manarola, from which we had taken the train to Riomaggiore before lunch.

Continuing along the path

Exiting at the Manarola train station

We first walked Via dell'Amore about thirteen years ago and left our padlock (along with many others) on the chain link fencing covering the rocks at that time.  Now our lock is probably on the bottom of the Mediterranean, but at least we get to walk the path again!