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During the holidays, I went down to Manfredonia in Puglia, where my in-laws live and where my husband is from.

Since I’ve now been in that area of Puglia more than a handful of times, I hint, hinted about seeing something a bit different this time around. I had heard of the Grotte di Castellana from another friend who often goes to Bari, which is nearby as well as Alberobello (famous for the trulli I showed you before). Unfortunately the wiki on this town contains only a sentence about it being close to Bari, so I will think about updating that page myself.

There are a few things to keep in mind if you’re interested in visiting: you can only visit the grotte with a guided tour, and there are two itineraries to choose from. The “short” itinerary is about 50 minutes the “long” one is 2 hours. I can’t think of a reason NOT to choose the longer itinerary as you obviously miss out on a lot of interesting sights only going partway into the grotte. The long itinerary is an extension of the short itinerary path so you don’t miss anything.

Contrary to my misguided notions about caves/grottoes that I think I kept with me from the Yosemite camp experience I had in 8th grade, the grottoes are not a series of sharp drops and pitchblack holes that you must rely on your partner to move your foot to the next safe holding place, etc. It is a pleasant jaunt, about 3km on the long itinerary and doable for most people who can walk without difficulty, and lit with timed spotlights.

This is the main cavern, which is huge but you can’t tell it from the picture. It was discovered by Franco Anelli in 1938 and they came through that large opening above. The cavern was used as a storage space and also a grave at a certain point and they found quite a few interesting things when they first discovered the space.

These are some stalagmites which are at the floor of the main cavern. Since I don’t have a lot of experience in caves/caverns/grottoes, I lack an “expert” opinion but I saw such a breadth of formation style, color and grotto space I thought it was really fascinating.

Photographs are technically only allowed in specific rooms, which was too bad but also a mixed blessing since I mentioned before my camera was dying on that trip so the pictures weren’t the best anyway, and you really needed a professional camera and flash to get a decent shot (which is not allowed).

Perhaps the most famous attraction of the Grotte di Castellana is the “Grotta Bianca,” the White Grotto, due to the color of the formations. In the grottoes, they ranged from white to a rust red (including a formation that resembles and is called the “Prosciutto Sandwich”) as well as certain formations that resembled a monkey, the Madonnina statue atop the Duomo in Milan, the Duomo itself and the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

The tour we took was in Italian, but they may have other languages available during the high season. His explanations were very interesting but the group size was quite large so you had to make sure you were near the guide to hear the complete explanation. This was an undeground spring near the Grotta Bianca and the stalagmite formations were really unique.

Grotte di Castellana
http://www.grottedicastellana.it/en/index_eng.htm