Italian Riviera finding new ways to manage tourism impact on historic hiking trails

It’s part of 120 miles of undulating trails that flit through pine-scented forests, flirt with postcard panoramas of the blue Ligurian Sea, and snake alongside terraced vineyards as they crisscross the Cinque Terre National Park.

The park, which was established in 1999 and is a UNESCO reserve, encompasses more than 9,500 acres and connects five of the Italian Riviera’s most picturesque coastal villages: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Riomaggiore.

While the trails nearest the park’s borders outside the villages can be relatively peaceful, the path from Monterosso to Vernazza teems with a steady stream of hikers from around the world. There are Americans, Brits and Australians, many of whom seem surprised at the arduousness of the trails.

The emphasis is on Cinque Terre’s winemaking heritage, seeming to be exactly the sort of tourism that park officials hope to encourage, while at the same time they’re struggling to cope with wear and tear on the most popular coastal trails.

Such is the concern about the influx of visitors to the Cinque Terre, which has only 4,000 permanent residents, that park president Vittorio Alessandro implied in February that limits would need to be imposed.

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