Made a couple of trips during my week in Italy.
First up the hill town of Camerano in the Le Marche region of Italy has a variety of man made grottos or caverns below it. There seems little certainty over the original reason for them being dug out - stories include reservoirs created by the Romans. Some are interlinked - I have a map which I will take a photo of and post up - but access between each one now is via the surface. The local commune take guided tours around some, subject to the permission of the owners. You will see that some have been reinforced in recent years (making them look a bit like a number of UK WW2 air raid shelters); a good idea since they appear to be mostly sandstone. Anyway, onto the photos -
Grotto 1 below the church
Grotto 2 below a school
Grotto 3 - entrance via a shop - consists of two chambers joined by a long corridor.
P
There are more hill towns than you can shake a stick at in this part of Italy but apparently very few have this sort of underground area. One other that does is Osimo..... more to follow.
First up the hill town of Camerano in the Le Marche region of Italy has a variety of man made grottos or caverns below it. There seems little certainty over the original reason for them being dug out - stories include reservoirs created by the Romans. Some are interlinked - I have a map which I will take a photo of and post up - but access between each one now is via the surface. The local commune take guided tours around some, subject to the permission of the owners. You will see that some have been reinforced in recent years (making them look a bit like a number of UK WW2 air raid shelters); a good idea since they appear to be mostly sandstone. Anyway, onto the photos -
Grotto 1 below the church
Grotto 2 below a school
Grotto 3 - entrance via a shop - consists of two chambers joined by a long corridor.
P
There are more hill towns than you can shake a stick at in this part of Italy but apparently very few have this sort of underground area. One other that does is Osimo..... more to follow.