Visit Frasassi caves
The caves at Frasassi (Grotte di Frasassi) are at Genga, 50 kilometres south-west of Ancona, in the Le Marche region.
Only discovered in the 1971 the Grotte di Frasassi is one of the largest known cave systems in Europe, and has an impressive array of stalactites and stalagmites along the 1500 metres of accesible caverns. We can only imagine what the underground explorers must have thought when they discovered such an immense underground system! By 1974 the first visitors to the Frasassi caves were being admitted.
Visited by guided tour that takes just over an hour to complete, the chambers in the caves are awesome in their size - up to 240 metres in height - and very impressive, enhanced with various light effects en route. The range of rock formations, stalactites, water pools etc to be seen at Frasassi is astounding.
There is still a large part of the caves that can not be visited by the public, and almost 15 kilometres of passages and caves have been explored in the system - believed to be less than half of the total
A bit of a media star, the largest cave at Frasassi - the Cave of the Wind (also the largest cave in Europe) - has become well known after being used in a curious TV reality programme which involved seeing how well people got on when shut in a cave together for a long time. Hmmm.
Close to Frasassi caves
The surrounding region, a mix of quiet hill villages and very attractive scenery including the Gola della Rossa Nature Park is also well worth exploring. follow the road towards Ganga to visit the Temple of Valadier and the Sanctuary of Saint Maria Infrasaxa, in a hillside cave in a particularly scenic location.