1. Northern Italy: Cinque Terre Coastal, from Levanto to Portovenere

This is a Grade 2 Walk (click here for details).  This continuous walk follows good paths which are straight forward to follow and there are some steep climbs up from the villages up to the trail. The walks are from 10 to 14 kms and can be comfortably done in half a day, which leaves you plenty of time to explore the little villages you'll be staying in.

As you may be aware, the trails on the Cinque Terre have become prone to landslips in recent times and sections of the trail may be closed without notice.  At the time of writing, all the paths on the Seniero Azzurro (the trail we use on this itinerary) are open except between Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore (last section of Day 3).  Please note that we have included an alternative high trail between Corniglia and Manarola via Volastra, just in case (although a bit more challenging I personally find this a more interesting walk than the standard one anyway).

The self-guided itineraries are rewalked and the notes updated each year.

Hidden Italy uses the best accommodation available.  On the Cinque Terre this means very comfortable, centrally located, family-run hotels. All rooms have en suite bathrooms and air-conditioning.  Please bear in mind that these are essentially small fishing villages and don't have a range of accommodation options. 

Please note that because of a lack of suitable accommodation in Vernazza, you will spend two nights in Monterosso, using the regular local trains to get from and back to Vernazza for the walks.

Ligurians like to use their own trusted products which come from the 350 kilometres of coastline with it rough, mountainous hinterland or is fished out of ther own waters.  It is an austere but delicous style of cooking that has produced such specialities as pesto sauce and foccaccia.  Even the wines, grown with great effort on the steep, rocky terraces seems to have been invented in Liguria, and suits the local food perfectly.

Generous breakfasts are included each day (you'll need them for your walks).  With notice, the hotels wil be able to prepare a cut lunch for the walk.  A range of restaurant recommendations with contact details for booking your dinners in each town/village will be included in your tour notes.

To guide you through this wonderful walk, you will receive:  the Hidden Italy roadbook (an eighty-page A5 booklet that includes comprehensive daily walking notes accompanied by detailed maps, updated and revised each year):  access to the exclusive Hidden Italy App to complement the roadbook (the App is downloadable to Apple and Android devices and features information about the routes: maps, GPS tracks, altimetric profiles, etc; GPS navigation on all the routes; an alert function if you stray off the track; and an emergency function);  twenty-four-hour phone support from our Florence-based Operations Manager.