The Vernazza to Corniglia Hike: Trail 592-3, Times and Difficulty

Terrain and difficulty

Trail 592-3 is graded Esperto, and that grade puts it in a different class from the easy southern Sentiero Azzurro sections. The path runs across coastal cliffs and old agricultural terraces, on ground that rises, falls and narrows rather than rolling gently. The park's guidance for this grade is explicit.

Walk only in good weather, wear suitable footwear and bring real hiking experience. Rain makes the surface treacherous, and sections can close after storms or for maintenance, so read the park's live status page on the morning you walk. Sturdy closed shoes with grippy soles are compulsory rather than optional.

Since 2019 the park bans flip-flops and open sandals on its trails, and reported fines run from US$56.80 (€50) to US$2,841.80 (€2,500) depending on the section and the risk created. If the Esperto grade puts you off, the contrast is stark at both ends of the Sentiero Azzurro. The easiest walk in the park is the Via dell'Amore between Riomaggiore and Manarola, graded Turistico and walkable in about half an hour.

Views and the two ends

The route stays high, which is why the views justify the grade. For most of the way you walk above the sea on clifftop ground and across terraced slopes where vines and olives have been grown on dry-stone walls for centuries. That terraced landscape is part of why the area was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1997 as a cultural landscape.

Look back and you get open coastal views along the whole stretch, and the path periodically delivers sightlines down to the water far below. The finish at Corniglia is the segment's most distinctive feature. Corniglia is the only one of the five villages with no ferry pier.

It sits on a promontory roughly 90 metres above the sea, home to about 195 people, and arriving on foot gives you the approach most day-trippers never see. Vernazza, your starting point if you follow this page's direction, is a harbour village of around 670 people with the Doria castle tower above its small port. Our Corniglia and Vernazza guides cover both ends in detail.

The official park time for this segment is 1 hour 30 minutes, published for the Corniglia to Vernazza direction on the park's trail-network table. No separate official figure exists for the reverse direction, which is the direction this page is named for. Treat 1 hour 30 as your baseline in either direction and add time for rests, photos and the climbs into and out of both villages, which the official segment time does not include.

If you walk from Vernazza you will climb out of the harbour village first and drop toward Corniglia at the end, and the final approach involves reaching the village itself from the trail. Build in a half day for the walk done comfortably, and check the whole Sentiero Azzurro picture if you are tempted to keep going. Our sum of the four official segment times is 5 hours 10 minutes end to end without stops.

The good news is that both ends of this hike have railway stations on the same line, so you can walk one way and let the train do the return. Both Vernazza and Corniglia sit on the Trenitalia Levanto-La Spezia regional line. Single tickets use three date-based fare bands, with the same price for any distance on the line: band A is US$5.68 (€5), band B is US$9.09 (€8) and band C is US$11.37 (€10).

A downloadable Trenitalia calendar sets which band applies on which date, and children aged 4 to 11 pay half. At peak season the reinforced Cinque Terre Express service runs roughly every 15 minutes from mid-March to early November. Start your walk at Vernazza station and follow signs for the Sentiero Azzurro toward Corniglia.

At the other end, Corniglia's station sits at the bottom of the promontory, well below the village. To reach the village you climb the Lardarina, a staircase of 33 ramps totalling 377 steps, or take the park shuttle bus instead, which is included in both versions of the Cinque Terre Card. Our Cinque Terre train page has timetabling detail.

If you are walking the opposite direction, Corniglia has no ferry pier, so the train is the only way in or out by public transport besides your own legs. For an easier introduction to the area before tackling the trail yourself, browse our Cinque Terre tours.

A few facts that change how you see this walk.

• The official 1 hour 30 walking time for trail 592-3 is published only for the Corniglia to Vernazza direction, and no separate official figure exists for walking it the other way [Parco Nazionale delle Cinque Terre, Rete Sentieristica]
• The four Sentiero Azzurro segments happen to run from shortest to longest south to north, 25 minutes, 1 hour 15, 1 hour 30 and 2 hours, and this one sits third [Parco Nazionale delle Cinque Terre, Rete Sentieristica]
• The whole park trail network runs to over 120 kilometres, so the Sentiero Azzurro is just the famous spine of a far bigger system [Parco Nazionale delle Cinque Terre, Sentieri e Outdoor]
• Corniglia's Lardarina staircase has 33 ramps totalling 377 steps between its station and the village, and a shuttle bus exists for anyone who skips the climb [Wikipedia (Italian), Corniglia]
• The terraced, human-shaped coastal landscape you walk through is part of a UNESCO World Heritage cultural landscape inscribed in 1997 under site ID 826 [UNESCO World Heritage Centre listing (ID 826)]