Rainy Day in Cinque Terre: 12 Things to Do When the Trails Close

First: check the weather alert

Look up the alert before you plan anything else. It tells you whether the trails, the Via dell'Amore and the Cinque Terre Card desks will be open that day.

What yellow, orange and red mean

Liguria's civil protection system publishes colour-coded alerts at allertaliguria.regione.liguria.it. The Cinque Terre fall in Zone C, and the Park's notices refer specifically to the "small catchments" category for that zone. In short:

• Yellow: "occasional danger", with localised effects.
• Orange: "danger", with widespread effects. For thunderstorms, orange is the top level, because red isn't used for storms.
• Red: "serious danger", with severe, extensive effects.

Alerts are forecasts with fixed start and end times, so read the hours as well as the colour.

What the National Park does at each level

Even after an alert ends, the Park sends geologists to inspect the trails before reopening them. After an orange-and-yellow alert in August 2025, it kept sections of the coastal Sentiero Verde Azzurro closed for checks. Our guide to hiking the Cinque Terre in winter covers the current trail status.

How to check: look at allertaliguria.regione.liguria.it the evening before, check the Park's trail-status page on the morning itself, and ask your host, who will usually know.

What happens to the Via dell'Amore

The official FAQ says the combined Via dell'Amore + Cinque Terre Card ticket is non-refundable, except that "a refund will be provided only in the event of a yellow, red or orange weather alert." The path reopened on 14 February 2025 after a landslide in late October 2024. The repairs cost €1.2 million, of which Riomaggiore paid €300,000 from ticket income, according to TravelQuotidiano. At the reopening, Riomaggiore's mayor Fabrizia Pecunia said in a Park press release that the path would always be closed during an alert, even a yellow one, as a precaution.

Storm surges (mareggiate): stay off the waterfront

Winter sea storms are the hidden danger. Liguria's official self-protection advice is to avoid lingering on the seafront and coastal roads, and above all on piers and jetties. During a surge, stay away from:

• the Riomaggiore and Manarola boat ramps
• Vernazza's breakwater
• Monterosso's seafront promenade
• the rocks below San Pietro in Porto Venere

During the November 2023 "black-dot" storm-surge warning, Liguria's president Giovanni Toti and civil-protection assessor Giacomo Giampedrone asked everyone not to go to the coast to photograph or film the waves, warning that the danger was very high. No photo is worth it.

Check before you go: a storm can change train and bus timetables at short notice.

Other experiences you might enjoy

On a wet winter day the indoor options sit around the Gulf of La Spezia. In La Spezia you can join food tours and pesto cooking classes, Manarola and Riomaggiore have wine tastings of Cinque Terre DOC and Sciacchetrà, Levanto and Vernazza host pesto and focaccia classes, and guided trips from Florence and Pisa still reach Porto Venere and the villages by coach and train.

12 rainy-day things to do in the Cinque Terre

1. Spend the day in La Spezia's museums

La Spezia is the best rainy-day base on this coast, with several museums within walking distance of each other:

• Museo Civico Amedeo Lia, Via del Prione 234: about 1,200 works from antiquity to the 18th century according to the Ministry of Culture listing (the museum's own site says around 1,000), displayed in a former convent. Open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00–18:00, with last tickets at 17:30. Closed Mondays, 1 January, 15 August and 25 December.
• Museo del Sigillo: inside the neo-medieval Palazzina delle Arti on Via del Prione, a quirky collection of more than 1,800 seals from the Capellini and Fiocchi Banfi donations, according to the Comune della Spezia's October 2023 relaunch. Open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00–18:00.
• CAMeC (modern and contemporary art), Piazza Cesare Battisti 1: open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00–19:00, and until 22:00 on the first Friday of the month. Closed Mondays and 25 December.
• Castello San Giorgio (archaeology museum): the civic museums' site lists 10:00–17:00 daily, and from 1 November 9:30–12:30 and 14:00–17:00. Council pages have given other winter hours, so check before you go.
• Museo Tecnico Navale, Viale Amendola 1, by the Arsenal gate: ship models, figureheads and naval history. Open daily 8:30–19:30. Closed 1 January, 15 August and 25 December.
• Mercato coperto, Piazza Cavour: La Spezia's daily food market. It trades in the mornings, Monday to Saturday (not on holidays), so go before lunch.

Price: a €14 combined ticket covers the Lia, the Sigillo, Castello San Giorgio, the Ethnographic-Diocesan Museum and CAMeC, valid for 72 hours. Single-museum prices for the Lia differ between the Ministry of Culture site and recent local press, so check at the desk. The naval museum sells its own ticket; check the price at the door.

Getting there: about 10 minutes by regional train from Riomaggiore to La Spezia Centrale, then a short walk downhill to Via del Prione. See getting around the Cinque Terre without the ferry. Time needed: half a day to a full day.

To fill the lunch break, a guided La Spezia food tour (4.6★ from 57 reviews) turns the break into a full meal of local dishes. It has far fewer reviews than the big day trips, so read the recent feedback before booking.

2. Taste Cinque Terre DOC and Sciacchetrà

The dry Cinque Terre DOC white and the amber, raisined Sciacchetrà dessert wine come from terraces so steep that harvests are still done largely by hand. Several village enoteche pour by the glass year-round, but winter hours are patchy.

Where: the most reliable winter option is the Cantina Cinque Terre cooperative at Groppo, above Manarola (municipality of Riomaggiore). According to the winery's own site, it brings together 220 member-growers who own 46 hectares of vineyards.

Winter hours, per the winery's site:

• November and January to March: Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday 8:00–18:00; Tuesday and Wednesday 8:00–13:30; closed Sundays and holidays.
• December: the April–October schedule, Monday to Saturday 8:00–19:00, plus Sundays and holidays. Pages on the winery's site give the Sunday hours differently, so phone ahead.
• Guided cellar visits run on weekdays at 11:00.
• Some third-party tasting tours here run only from mid-March to October, so book directly and confirm.

Price: guided tastings from €30 per person on the winery's site. Getting there: Groppo is on the road above Manarola. Take a taxi or the Park shuttle bus from Manarola, and check the winter shuttle times. Time needed: 1.5–2 hours.

If you'd prefer a guide to pour and explain, the Manarola wine tasting with a sommelier (4.6★ from 116 reviews) is booked online for a fixed slot; check that your date shows in its calendar. More producers, prices and winter opening are in our Cinque Terre wine in winter guide.

3. Take a pesto, trofie or focaccia cooking class

Make pesto in a marble mortar, then eat it. Few rainy-day plans are better.

• Levanto: a short pesto class at La Nicchia Pestifera, Corso Italia 16, takes about 1.5 hours, walking from the station. A small-group fresh pasta and pesto class near Levanto (5.0★ from 163 reviews, maximum six people) includes the transfer from Levanto.
• Vernazza: a pesto-making class in Vernazza (4.8★ from 244 reviews) is the option inside the five villages, an easy train ride from the other four.
• La Spezia: home-cooking classes with local hosts. One operator lists a 3-hour class Monday to Saturday, meeting at 10:30 on Via Garibaldi.

Winter: most classes run on request. We couldn't confirm fixed winter dates, so book online and check availability for your date. Price: varies by platform and group size. Time needed: 1.5–4 hours.

4. Riomaggiore castle and the Via dell'Amore

The 900-metre Via dell'Amore clifftop path (one-way, Riomaggiore to Manarola, a maximum of 30 minutes) plus Riomaggiore's castle. Castle entry is included with the Via dell'Amore + Cinque Terre Card ticket, and no booking is needed for the castle.

• Castle: daily 10:00–13:00 and 14:00–17:00 from 1 October to 31 May.
• Via dell'Amore: from 25 October 2026 to 27 March 2027, the official ticket site lists booking slots from 9:00, closing at 17:30. The Park's page gives the same 17:30 last entry.

Price: included in a Cinque Terre Card with Via dell'Amore, or €10 on top of an existing card. Rain rule: light rain with no alert is fine if you wear grippy shoes. In any alert, assume the path is shut and claim your refund.

Check before you go: the Park's trail page reportedly listed the Via dell'Amore as closed in late September 2026, so confirm its status on the day. Time needed: 1–1.5 hours. The village itself is covered in our Riomaggiore guide.

5. Monterosso's churches and the Capuchin convent

Monterosso has the most to see indoors of the five villages:

• San Giovanni Battista, the striped parish church in the old town.
• Oratorio dei Neri (Confraternita Mortis et Orationis) next door. Its opening is irregular.
• The Capuchin convent and church of San Francesco, up a stepped lane between the old town and Fegina. Inside are a 17th-century Crucifixion attributed to Van Dyck (some sources say his workshop) and a San Girolamo by Luca Cambiaso.

Hours: online listings show the convent church open roughly 8:00–19:30, but it's a working friary, so check on arrival. Price: free (leave a donation). Time needed: 1.5–2 hours, including a focaccia stop. More in our Monterosso guide.

6. Vernazza: Santa Margherita d'Antiochia and the Doria castle

• Santa Margherita d'Antiochia is the harbour church, first recorded in 1318. It's free.
• Castello Doria sits above the village. Visitors have reported a small entry fee, but we couldn't verify its winter opening. The stairs get slippery in rain.

Safety: skip the breakwater entirely in a surge. Time needed: 1 hour.

7. Manarola: San Lorenzo, the old mill and the nativity

• San Lorenzo church sits at the top of the village.
• Piè de Campu mill is a water mill documented since 1643 and worked until 1963. The Radici association restored it and opens it on set days (it opened 16:00–19:00 on nativity day 2025). Out-of-hours visits can be booked by phone, and a donation is expected.
• The nativity: after dark between December and January, the Presepe di Manarola lights up the hillside. The expected lighting date is 8 December 2026, and recent seasons have ended in mid-January. The lights come on around dusk. Watch from the church square or Via Rollandi, and don't take the unlit Via Beccara in the rain.

Full details are in our Manarola nativity guide. Time needed: 1–2 hours.

8. Porto Venere by bus 11/P

A gorgeous harbour town at the tip of the gulf, with the striped San Pietro church on the point and the Doria castle above the town. Look at Byron's Grotto only from a safe distance, and stay away completely in rough seas. Finish with a long seafood lunch.

Getting there: ATC bus 11/P from the Via Garibaldi stop, about 8 minutes' walk from La Spezia Centrale, takes about 30 minutes. ATC's winter timetable runs from 13 September 2026 to 12 June 2027. Castle: from November to March the Ministry of Culture lists it as open on Saturdays and Sundays, 10:00–13:00 and 14:00–17:00. Ticket prices differ between sources, so check before you go. Time needed: half a day.

9. Sarzana or Lerici and the Gulf of Poets

Sarzana is an arcaded old town with real shops open in winter. It also has the Fortezza Firmafede, home to the MUdeF fortress museum; hours vary by season, so check the fortress website.

Christmas market: the 2025 Sarzana Christmas Market in Piazza Matteotti ran from 29 November to 6 January, Thursday to Sunday 10:00–20:00. We hadn't found 2026–27 dates at the time of writing.

Lerici is lovely for a long lunch and a castle walk when the sea is calm.

Getting there: a short regional train ride from La Spezia to Sarzana. For Lerici, take the ATC bus or hire a driver. Time needed: half a day.

10. A focaccia and food crawl

Eat your way through the rain:

• plain or onion focaccia from a village bakery
• farinata (a chickpea flatbread) in La Spezia
• acciughe di Monterosso (anchovies, fried or salted)
• anything with pesto

Note that cheese-filled focaccia di Recco comes from near Genoa, not from here.

Lunch timing: kitchens typically serve from about 12:30 to 14:30. In winter many village restaurants close on certain weekdays or for weeks at a time, so book. See what's open and closed in winter. If you'd like someone to lead the crawl, the La Spezia food tour makes a full meal of Cinque Terre dishes in the city.

11. Escape to Pisa or Lucca by train

If the alert covers the whole coast, head inland. Pisa is on the direct coastal line from La Spezia. Lucca usually means a change, often at Viareggio, so check Trenitalia. You get the Leaning Tower and museums, or Lucca's walls and churches.

Our Cinque Terre day trip from Florence or Pisa in winter guide works in reverse too, and once you are in Pisa, Pisa tours and Leaning Tower tickets can be booked on the day. Time needed: full day.

12. A spa afternoon, or a cosy storm-watch

• Golfo dei Poeti Relais & Spa in Montemarcello offers day-spa access for non-guests (10:00–19:30), with heated outdoor pools. Its winter dates conflict between sources.
• Relais Al Convento in Vezzano Ligure has a 90-minute spa circuit, booked in advance. Hotel-booking listings suggest it closes for part of the winter, so check its dates before you plan around it.

To make a night of it, compare hotels in La Spezia and filter for a spa or wellness area; check that the spa is open on your dates, because several close for part of the winter.

Storm-watching: watch the waves only from behind the railings at a high viewpoint such as Punta Bonfiglio in Manarola. Never do it from harbour level, and skip it entirely during a surge alert. A café window works too.

Sample rainy-day itineraries

(a) La Spezia base

• Morning: the Piazza Cavour market (before noon), then the Museo Amedeo Lia.
• Lunch: farinata and a plate of trofie al pesto.
• Afternoon: the naval museum or CAMeC.
• Evening: an aperitivo, or a cooking class with dinner.

(b) Village base (for example Manarola or Monterosso)

• Morning: a train to La Spezia for the museums. Or stay local and visit Monterosso's churches.
• Lunch: anchovies and focaccia.
• Afternoon: a wine tasting at Groppo, or a pesto class in Levanto.
• Evening: the Manarola nativity in December or January, if the dates fit. Our guide to where to stay in winter compares the bases.

(c) Florence day-tripper caught by rain

• Morning: stay on the train to La Spezia and skip the villages.
• Lunch: in La Spezia's old town.
• Afternoon: the Museo Lia, or bus 11/P to Porto Venere if no surge is forecast.
• Evening: an early train back. Or skip the coast and do Lucca on the way.

Packing for wet days? See what to pack for the Cinque Terre in November.

Rainy-day activities compared

Frequently asked questions

What travellers ask most about a rainy day in the Cinque Terre.

Before you go

Check before you go: museum, castle and winery hours change each winter, and an orange alert closes every trail and stops card sales. Check Allerta Liguria the evening before and the Park's trail page in the morning, then book the indoor plan that fits the day.