Italy’s renowned ‘Path of Love’ reopens after years with strict tourist rules.
Italy’s Via dell’Amore or Path of Love has been reopened more than a decade after a long closure following a landslide in 2012.
The path is located in Italy’s beautiful Cinque Terre region.
The tourists can visit the destination, which is known for its breathtaking coastal views and romantic ambiance, under certain restrictions that aim to control numbers of visitors and conserve the site.
According to Daily Express, starting this month, access to the Via dell’Amore will be limited to 4,000 visitors per day.
To control this, tourists will need to buy tickets for timed entry slots.
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Moreover, visitors will be monitored by staff members to ensure that the path is respected as the “open-air museum” it has become.
This measure addresses the challenges of overtourism in Cinque Terre, a coastal national park consisting of five fishing villages.
“We’re not doing it to make money,” Fabrizia Pecunia, the mayor of Riomaggiore, said.
“In 2011 it had around 870,000 visitors so we basically want to keep the old numbers but distribute [them] better.”
The path’s €23 million renovation involved extensive safety improvements, including the removal of fragile rocks, installation of steel netting over landslip-prone areas, and the extension of an open-sided tunnel through the cliff.
One of the most iconic and romantic trails in the world is set to reopen after a lengthy refurbishment. Italy’s so-called “Path of Love” had been closed since September 2012, after a landslide injured four tourists. pic.twitter.com/BCtnmzUqrJ
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The preservation project, which took nine years of planning and two years of intense construction work, aimed to increase both safety and aesthetics.
The Via dell’Amore, which was first opened in 1931, will be open to visitors from 8:30am to 7:00pm in summer and until 5:00pm in winter.
Via dell’Amore was initially built to connect the isolated villages of Riomaggiore and Manarola.
Earlier, residents had to either climb 600 steps over the cliffs or take a train, which began service in 1874.
