The Sentiero Azzurro: the Blue Trail Linking All Five Villages

The park grades every trail Turistico for easy tourist walking, Escursionistico for hiking, or Esperto for expert. The Blue Trail's four numbered segments carry two easy grades and two expert grades, so the difficulty is not spread evenly. The park's guidance is to walk only in good weather, with suitable footwear, and with hiking experience.

Add the four official times and our sum is 5 hours 10 minutes for the full Riomaggiore to Monterosso route, without stops.

Trail 592-2 in full

Trail 592-2 is the only Blue Trail segment without its own page on this site, so here is everything the official sources tell us. The park lists an official walking time of 1 hour 15 minutes. It connects Manarola, a village of about 353 people sitting close to the water, with Corniglia, the only one of the five villages with no ferry pier.

Corniglia stands on a promontory about 90 metres above the sea, so the segment ends with a climb to village level. Once you arrive at Corniglia's small station you face the Lardarina, a staircase of 33 ramps totalling 377 steps, or you can take the park bus up instead. The segment's difficulty grade is not stated in the park's segment listing, unlike the Turistico first segment and the two Esperto segments either side of it.

Treat it as a real hike, not a stroll. The path is uneven in places, which is why the guided tour covering it rules out young children and anyone with back, heart or mobility problems. If you want a longer day out, the park also lists a separate higher inland route from Manarola to Corniglia through Volastra, the terraced-vineyard route, at 3 hours 15 minutes and graded Escursionistico.

That is a different trail, not a Blue Trail detour. Because this segment asks to be treated as a real hike, checking the guided Cinque Terre tours that include the Sentiero Azzurro is a sensible step before setting out from Manarola.

The other three segments, briefly

Segment 592-1 is the famous Via dell'Amore between Riomaggiore and Manarola, graded Turistico and walkable in about 30 minutes, but it is one-way and individual visitors must book a time slot in advance even with a card. We cover the booking system, hours and rules on its own page. Segment 592-3, Corniglia to Vernazza, is graded Esperto and takes 1 hour 30 minutes, and has a full route description of its own.

Segment 592-4, Vernazza to Monterosso, is the longest and takes 2 hours, also graded Esperto, with its own page too. Follow those links for the detail rather than repeating it here.

The Blue Trail looks simple on a map, but the official record holds a few details that change how you plan the day.

• The park's trail-network table gives segment 1 as 25 minutes while the park's own Via dell'Amore page says about 30 minutes for the same stretch, so both figures are official [park trail table and park Via dell'Amore page].
• There is no 3-day Trekking Card at all. If you want three days of access with trains included, the 3-day Treno MS Card is the only option [park card shop].
• Corniglia, the end of the middle segment, has no ferry pier. It is the only one of the five villages boats cannot reach, sitting about 90 metres above the sea [ferry operator stop list].
• The 5h10 end-to-end figure is our sum of the park's four segment times, not a figure the park prints itself, and it excludes every stop [our sum of park segment times].
• The park also lists a separate higher inland route from Manarola to Corniglia via Volastra, the terraced-vineyard route, at 3 hours 15 minutes. It is a different trail, not a Blue Trail variant [park trail network page].