Guided visit to the Grotte di Castellana

What it is

The Grotte di Castellana are a system of karst caves beneath the Murgia plateau, 1.5 km from the village of Castellana Grotte and about 45 minutes by car from Bari. They have 3,348 metres of galleries and, according to the company that runs them, the route descends to about 70 metres underground. Inside it is about 16.5 °C all year, so in August it is welcome and in winter it is no colder than outside.

You enter through la Grave, a huge sinkhole open to the sky down which the speleologist Franco Anelli descended in 1938, the first to explore them. From there the path continues through caverns that the first explorers named for what they thought they saw in the rock: the She-Wolf, the Cavern of the Monuments, the Owl, the Desert Corridor, the Tower of Pisa or the Duomo of Milan. The end of the long route is the Grotta Bianca, a white cave covered in calcite crystals.

Which route to choose

There are two, always with a guide and in slots at set times. The partial one covers 1 km in about 50 minutes and is enough with small children. The full one covers 3 km in about 100 minutes and includes the Grotta Bianca: it is the one worth the trip if you have time. The day's slots are published on the calendar on its website.

At the ticket office, the full route costs €25 per adult and €22 for ages 6 to 14; the partial, €22 and €19. Children under 5 enter free. For a family of four with two children aged 6 to 14 there is a family ticket for €61, online only. Online you pay a commission and buy at the latest the day before; at the ticket office tickets are sold for the same day until the slots are full.

Getting there and parking

From Bari, about half an hour on the dual carriageway south and the rest on Murgia roads; from Alberobello it is about 25 minutes. There are three paid car parks: P1 and P2, beside the caves, and P3, at a shopping centre on Via Putignano, with a shuttle. Arrive a quarter of an hour before your slot.