Paths’ Restoration

This year, also due to the catastrophic events of last autumn, we are working together with other residents of Volastra in the restoration of the paths that link our village to the other villages of the Cinque Terre.
First of all we started to restore path no. 6d which starts from the church of Volastra and reaches Corniglia in about 1 hour and 15 minutes. It goes through a little group of houses called Pianca and the beautiful terraced vineyards. This trail is very special due to the characteristic monorails used for transportation of the grapes, the Mediterranean olive trees and its beautiful sea view for the entire walk.
The work consisted in the restoration of some stone walls destroyed by heavy rainfall and in the cutting of vegetation that was going to obstruct the passages.
Then, together with a group of volunteers from Manarola, we started working at path no. 6, which from Volastra reaches trail no.1 passing through an area with terraced vineyards, olive trees and a forest of pines, oaks and chestnut trees.
In about 40 minutes from Volastra, you can reach path no. 1 and from there, walking on the ridge of the hill, you can turn either left or right, in the direction of Levanto or Portovenere and from there descend to any of the Cinque Terre villages down by the sea.
The final phase was focused on weeding an old trail (called Vistone) that from Volastra descends to Groppo and reaches Manarola in alternative to path no. 6.
Since these paths had not been used for a long time, its restoration required a lot of time and energy, but it allowed to make accessible an alternative path to Manarola. Along this path, you meet an old fountain with natural rain water, skillfully carved from the rock, where ancient people from Volastra used to draw as the sole source for drinking water.
Next to the fountain there is the shape of an animal carved in a stone drywall, from which head the water of the mountain was flowing.
After the fountain, the trail winds through terraced olive trees before reaching Groppo, a small village founded near the river which gives the name to the village, which is an intermediate stop along the path before reaching Manarola.
We would like to underline that the work has been done on a voluntary basis by our own means, with the collaboration of the voluntary members of the CAI (Alpine Italian Club).
This association has been formed to prevent the problems linked to the raising meteorological phenomena and the problems related to bureaucracy with the chronic lack of attention and funds by the authorities who should be appointed to this purpose.