Underground Tuscany

Grottos, mines and other underground areas

Tuscany is full of fascinating hidden underground areas just waiting to be visited. There are 1500 grottos, 270kms of natural underground tunnels, numerous mines and other underground treasures. This is a part of Tuscany that never sees the sunlight, but which nonetheless has a wealth of natural and archaeological gems to be discovered.These are Tuscany’s most secret places: prehistoric caves, ...

Walk the 'Città del Tufo' Park

Itineraries in this Etruscan necropoli

Etruscan tombs peep out everywhere in Sovana, dug into the tufo slopes that surround the town. Many of them can be reached following the mysterious “quarried” or “cut” paths: enormous, narrow corridors cut deep into the tufo rock, which may have been linking roads, for drainage, or perhaps sacred paths for religious rites. If you follow the path that goes off from the San Martino sul Fiora ...

The Great Grotta del Vento

Stalactites, crystal lakes and alabaster walls

La Grotta del Vento, or the Windy Cave, is in Fornovolasco, near Vergemoli, right in the middle of the Apuane Alps Nature Reserve. It is known as one of the most interesting and unique caves in Europe thanks to an extraordinary variety of phenomena found inside. Experts in the subject take visitors on guided tours of the cave.Convenient footpaths run through the cave and allow visitors to safely ...

The Labyrinth of Porsenna

Underground passages for water supply

Between the 7th and 5th centuries BC, Chiusi was one of the most important towns in the Etruscan Dodecapolis (“league of twelve cities”). In his Naturalis Historia, Pliny the Elder tells that the legendary Etruscan king Porsenna was buried in a majestic tomb inside an unfathomable labyrinth; and according to a medieval legend, the sarcophagus was guarded inside a golden chariot pulled by 12 ...

Grotta del Vento Cave System

A cave at an altitude of 642m

Grotta del Vento is situated in the province of Lucca, in one of the wildest parts of the Apuan Alps regional park. The origin of its name, meaning the windy cave, is self-evident: the cave takes its name from the strong air currents that flow through it caused by the difference between the outside and inside grotte, temperatures (there is a constant inside temperature of +10.7 °C). People have ...

Grotta Giusti in Monsummano Terme

Cave with Therapy Facilities

Grotta Giusti formed thousands of years ago in the calm of the age-old park at Monsummano Terme. The third largest cave in Europe, it is so enchanting that the composer Giuseppe Verdi defined it “the eighth wonder of the world”. However, its beauty is not the only reason for guests to dedicate part of their time to it. Its three caverns form a real and proper natural Turkish bath – the ...

Tuscany for you

Grotta all’Onda Casoli in Camaiore

In Monte Matanna at 708m

After around one hour’s walk along an easy CAI marked path through the oak woods of Monte Matanna, you will be able to make out the natural sound of small waterfalls trickling down the outside walls ...

Antro del Corchia Cave System

Caves in Monte Corchia, Apuan Alps

The Monte Corchia cave system in the Apuan Alps Regional Park is the largest cave system in Italy and one of the biggest in Europe. With five million years of geological history behind it, its over ...

The Caves of Equi Terme in the Apuan Alps

New itineraries to explore nature, art and prehistory

You arrive at the Equi caves from Equi Terme, an old spa village in the Apuan Alps. Inside the park, you can enter one of the three cavities - la Buca, le Grotte or la Tecchia; or follow the Solco di ...

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