Tip on the Abandoned Railway Tunnel From Corniglia | Reader Feedback
Hello all Cinque Terre Enthusiasts,
I’ve been to the villages during May 2002 and want to add some information to Guvano beach and the abandoned railway tunnel from Corniglia. We reached the beach in the afternoon descending from a steep path starting at an intersection of the hiking path Vernazza – Corniglia. To ease our return we wanted to pass the tunnel. There is a man, as dirty looking as the pans with some dried food on his table, surrounded by cats, who charges 5 Euro per person and passage! (Children as far as I remember are free.) Nice job, as we observed him apparently watching the nudists some 12 metres below him. That sounded an impertinent high price to us, provided that it is for a 10 minute walk and some illumination. He, however, closed at 5 pm and so we took the one hour walk across the hill to Corniglia anyway.
A day later we looked to the entrance of the tunnel at the Corniglia side (down the station), wanting to know how he managed the access. There is an old rusty gate that can be opened by a modern electric door opener and a video controlled intercom lets the man observe the persons entering the tunnel. Interesting, though, that there was barely visible the old price of 5000 Italian Lire over-painted on the wall. He simply calculated his new price using “divide by 1000”! A price increase of 100% as the correct result would haven been approx. 2.5 Euro.
Besides from that, the beach of Guvano really is nice and one of the rare opportunities to go for swimming in the Cinque Terre. Enjoy your stay!
Wolfgang (from Germany)