Autumn 2022

Castellana Grotte then Mattinata - 24 October 2022

Well, despite the reviews, we had a pleasant night in the cemetery carpark last night! Over here (based on extensive knowledge (not!) it appears that cemeteries are only open at certain times, with big locked gates otherwise. Tintin took the rubbish to the bins this morning and said the flowers at the stall looked beautiful. At first the man said no, he couldn’t dump the rubbish, as all the bins were locked, then let him put our rubbish in his bin - very kind!

It was either the 11,500 steps, or the clean bedding last night - but slept well.

Today we were up early - on a mission! We’d wanted to go to see the Castellana caves yesterday, but was fully booked online - so booked for the full tour at 11am today - hence hanging around the area!

As parking at the caves would be €7 for Dave, we parked about a mile away in a sosta and serviced Dave at the same time, and cycled in.

The caves extend for over 3km, and go down 122m below streetlevel. The temperature stays a constant 17° year round.

We saw hundreds of stalactites and stalagmites, (Mnemonic: The 'mites go up and the 'tites come down. When one has ants in one's pants, the mites go up and the tights come down).

Speleologist Franco Anelli reached the edge of the sinkhole known as “Grave” on January 23rd, 1938. Our guide Mary said it took about 20 years for walkways to be built for tourists in the 1970s. At one point when we were 72m deep, she said the humidity was 98%. We’d both worn jeans, and put our fleeces on, neither was really necessary - both hot by the end.

As with everything popular, there were (what I think!) lots of people, although it must be horrible in the height of summer!

We were told repeatedly by Giuseppe at the rear, that we weren’t allowed to take photos - oops! I feel that having spent €42 (more booking online!) - we should be allowed!

We were on the full 2 hour English speaking tour, but also had French and Germans, as maybe their English is better than their Italian! Had from babies to elderly, to one in particular with bad body odour!

Before the doors opened (10 minutes late - Italian time) - there were a couple of rather elderly men competing with each other - singing - rather badly and one very loudly and out of tune!

The average growth rate for a stalactite is about 0.13mm per year whereas for a stalagmite it’s about 0.16mm per year - meaning these have been here for 90 - 100 million years!

If people touch them, then oil from skin turns them black over time.

If anyone is interested - just found the website (maybe I should have found this before, and not after our visit!)

https://www.grottedicastellana.it/en/the-grottoes/the-origin/

As it was lit up, we didn’t see the bats which live there. Apparently they eat mosquitoes up near the top - bats have gone up in my estimation! Might be jinxing it - but neither of us appear to have been bitten in the last couple of days…

After 1pm when the tour was over, I was hungry and had seen they sold panzarotti on the way in. What a mistake! They were €6, and the flustered woman who was only serving one table disappeared and came back with two frozen ones which she then cooked in the microwave! They should be deep fried pockets of dough filled with tomato and cheese - which they were - but I’m guessing it’s like having a Ginsters instead of a real Cornish pasty?!

Tintin continuing to drive. Took nearly 3 hours - mainly dual carriage way, or Autostrada €6.60 - but some really awful roads too!

We did laugh when we saw the bus overtaking the car!

We are now on the Gargano Peninsula - at Mattinata - as Tintin saw a review where the person said it was the ‘best place in Puglia’.

The landscape changed again, big hills in the distance - and the amount of rubbish is nothing short of disgusting - in virtually every lay by - even sofas and mattresses…