Caves of Castel Gandolfo

 

I had an opportunity visit Castel Gandolfo recently. While I had been there briefly before, it was clear that there'd be more to explore. Castel Gandolfo sits on the rim of the lake Lago Albano, and also near Lago di Nemi. These lakes are beautiful places but also with interesting geology, both being volcanic craters.

But are there caves?

My primary target was to visit Grotta Neolitica (N 41.753270 E 12.684480). However, it turned out to be very difficult to reach. Access to it is on a steep hill and the cave itself is in the middle of a high cliff. It would have been possible to park the car near switchback where there's reportedly a path towards the cave. However, it just looked like an absolute jungle, overgrown bushes that would be difficult to pass through. No sign of any path visible. And as noted, this was on a steep hill. Contrary to my usual bad judgment, I decided it was too dangerous.

If anyone's interested, there's a Wikiloc path leading to it -- the one I was trying to find. 

Photos below. In the first picture, the cave is on the other side of the lake, in the cliffs at the top of the rim roughly in the middle.

It turned out that my first cave visit would be in an unexpected place: the dinner restaurant. Arte e Vino is a very nice restaurant in Castel Gandolfo's main street. Coordinates are N 41.745297 E 12.650869. While waiting to be seated, we were offered a tour of their cave -- a complex maze of underground rock tunnels under their basement. The maze connects a number of different restaurants on both sides of the street, and to this date houses their wine collections, vegetables, and all kinds of historic equipment for wine-making and other purposes. The cave is in part a built basement on the upper part, then a in part a human-carved set of tunnels and in part natural cave holes. Very interesting! Wish I had something like this under my house :-)

Photos:

But on the way to Grotta Neolitica I had also spotted something by the road. In the backyard of what seemed to be a trailer park or someone's trailer home there was a nice looking cave! Let's call it the Piccola Grotta Neolitica al Lago, as it is pretty small and near the lake. Coordinates are N 41.758336 E 12.671467.

I visited this cave, even if I was a bit worried that the trailer occupant might not like me being there... but I did not see any sign of anyone else. (If you are the occupant, and you don't like me talking about your cave, I'm sorry! Let me know.)

Photos:

Using my iPhone's lidar sensor, I also made a 3D model of the cave (download it here in GLB or BLENDER or STL format) that you can rotate on your own browser screen (click for that here).

My Cave Outliner software (link) also produced a map of the cave based on the scanned model:

The high-resolution version of the map is available here.

I also noticed a small, maybe 3-meter wide shelter cave in the cliffs around Lago Albano. Let's call it the Minuscola Grotta al Lago (N 41.738764 E 12.660339).

Here are some pictures also from Caste Gandolfo and Lago Albano:

And Lago di Nemi:

Read more urban exploration stories from theurbanexplorer.net, and other underground stories from planetcaver.net. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot or TGR. Photos and text (c) 2023 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.