Happy that I was finally on my way to the right city, Castellana and not Castellaneta, I again noticed myself getting close to a very small town. The train station was even smaller than the previous one. In fact this one looked more like a bus stop! It had one bench and one sign. It did not have two platforms, only one! I double checked with the attendant before exiting. He pointed me in the direction of the caves and trusting him I got off and headed toward the caves.
After a short walk I arrived at the Castellana Grotto. The cave network was over 3 KM long! I paid 15 Euros for the long excursion inside the cave. I headed down with a group of people. We had a guide (I thought she was going to be speaking English, but I guessed wrong) I started to head down underground where it opened up into this beautiful room with an incredibly high ceiling that somewhat resembled the Pantheon in Rome, because it was domed on the inside and had an “oculus” at the top to let in light. While I was mesmerized by the sights I overheard someone speaking English! I figured out I had followed the wrong group down, so I quickly transferred to the English speaking group.
We continued down further into the cave learning about the history, and its formation. It was incredibly interesting. I love seeing caves! And this one was nothing short of spectacular. Due to the photo restrictions on the caverns I was not allowed to take any pictures past the first room.
So we winded down through the narrow passageways and went into a special sealed room that is very “untouched” and all of the limestone is perfectly white, almost translucent. It was magnificent. It was a wonderful cave excursion well worth the trip down to southern Italy.
When we exited the cave there was a guy climbing the elevator shaft, fairly interesting. After watching him climb around a bit, I headed to the souvenir stand to grab a post card that showed the white cave. I also stopped by their snack section and selected a piece of pizza, which I have to say, was delicious!
After the pizza I headed back to the tiny train stop, read the time information and waited on the bench. Several minutes went by and I saw an engine speed by, and then it sped by the opposite direction. But I finally got on my train, and began heading to Napoli.
Eating my Swiss Chocolate
