Known for their beauty, the Cinque Terre were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site and an Italian national park at the end of the last century.  Explaining why the area was selected as a cultural highlight, UNESCO cited the way humans have transformed the steep cliffs into agricultural fields with the use of terracing.  Also noted were how the people have adapted to the inhospitable geography by constructing compact settlements directly on the rocky cliffs, incorporating winding streets to navigate up and down the hills.  

    

The five villages are connected by a series of trails, some lower along the coastline and others climbing the steep hills above the towns.  The trail from Riomaggiore, the farthest village south, and its closest neighbor Manorola is a flat easy path carved into the side of the cliff in the 1920s.  Known as Via dell'Amore, or the Pathway of Love, this level trail was especially appreciated in its early days by villagers from the two towns experiencing their first opportunities to court and fall in love with someone outside their isolated village.  Over the years both villagers and visitors have contributed to the lover's lane graffiti that covers this stretch of the trail.

    

A more recent trend has been the addition of "love locks" along the rail, fences, and even the steel netting bolted to the cliffside to prevent rockslides.  In this custom, whose popularity has been spreading through various countries around the world, sweethearts affix a padlock, often adorned with their names or initials and perhaps some special date or place, to a public fixture such as a bridge or fence. 

Bridges are popular spots for these locks because the lovers then throw the key into the water to symbolize the permanence of both the lock and their love.  Hundreds of these locks decorate the structures along the Cinque Terre's lover's lane.