Cinque Terre - The Coastal Trail

It isn't not quite correct to say that ALL of the coastal trail was closed during our visit. The path between Manarola and Riomaggiore (between the pinkie-ring finger town and the ring fnger-middle finger town) was open. It is called the "Via dell Amore", or Pathway of Love.
These villages are quite close to each other, but, without the pathway, are really quite isolated. Most villagers married amongst themselves (although we did not see any three eyed people while we were there), but the pathways enabled villagers to "interact" (wink, wink) with each other. The Via Dell Amore cuts through the mountain and is completely covered in some places. It was secured with the help of climbers from the Dolomites in northern Italy, as the mountains here are almost vertical. As the Via dell Amore is covered in the most tenuous places, it remained open during our visit (see the top picture).
It is only about 1km between Manarola and Riomaggiore, so we walked to Riomaggiore a couple of times for dinner. The pathway is lit up at night and the most spectacular inlets are lit from above, and it is another bum-clencher to stand on a path and stare straight down into crashing waves, 20m below. The best part about this walk, is that at this time of year there are hundreds of fireflies. So it is very nice and romantic to stroll along a dimly lit path after dark, looking down at the waves and looking up at the twinkling lights of the fireflies, flitting from bush to bush on the mountain side.
In the lower picture, taken from the south side and above Riomaggiore, you can see Riomaggiore and it's breakwater in the foreground, then the pathway snaking along to Manarola. Corniglia is the town that is perched up on a bit of a headland, then Monterosso is in the background. It is not possible to see Vernazza from the towns to the south.