|
People staying at the Institute can enjoy guided walks to the top of spectacular local mountains and into various interesting caves. Recent visitors have been to the top of Pania della Croce, Pania Secca, Monte Procinto, Monte Forato, Monte Sumbra, Monte Nona, Monte Matanna, Pizzo d'Uccello, Monte Croce and Monte Palodina. They have also explored the Orrido di Botri canyon, and the Tana di Cascaltendine, the Tana che Urla, the Buca della Freddana, and the Vasaio di Motrone caves, amongst others.
Locate and map any cave in Tuscany
Instructions for non-Italian speakers: (it's a bit complicated!)
- Before clicking on the above link you need to turn off Popup Blocking in your browser for the Caves of Tuscany site. It
really won't work if you don't. You should be able to make "web.rete.toscana.it" into an Exception which is allowed to open popups rather than turning off blocking altogether.
- If a map doesn't appear when you click the "Caves of Tuscany" link above, click "Censimento Grotte" in the list presented.
- When the map appears, look at the list in the top right corner. Click the gray box to the left of the word "Grotte"; caves should then appear on the map as orange dots.
- Press the yellow folder symbol immediately to the left of the gray box you just clicked. A new line will open up immediately below - click the newly appeared gray circle. A popup window should appear saying (in Italian) 'CAVE is now the active subject'. This means that when you subsequently press the Info button for information, you will get information about caves as opposed to something else, like the population of the local Commune.
- Use the buttons on the top left to navigate within the map. You should only need (1) the magnifying glasses with + and - in them to zoom in and out, (2) the picture of a hand, which will allow you to drag the map sideways, and (3) the big black arrow
pointing to the left which 'returns to the previous scale'. When you zoom in enough, the name of the cave should appear next to the orange dot representing its location. You can experiment with the other buttons in the top right panel, which toggle various kinds of information on the map.
- Note that the Institute is located somewhere near the letters "LU" on the map (meaning 'Lucca province'). Note the huge numbers of caves in the Apuan Alps.
- When you find the cave you want, press the Info button (black circle with an
'i' in it), then click on the orange symbol representing the cave (which will
vary in size depending on how accurately the cave's location is known). This will
give you information about the cave in the form of a popup window. The most important info is obtained by pressing the links in the two rightmost boxes of the popup table; these link to
pdf files containing (1) limited basic data about the cave ('Scheda'), and (b) a map of the cave ('Rilievo'). For really crap caves the Rilievo map may not be present, though it usually is..
- In the 'Scheda', the 'Dislivello' numbers refer to how much the cave goes up and down; the 'Sviluppo' numbers tell you about the horizontal extension of the cave (both in metres).
- You should be able to press the Print button to create a map suitable for printing (you are given the option of adding a title ('titolo') first). You can
add your own annotation to the map using the TEXT button.
- Go and visit the cave. Just finding it can be quite a laugh. Before I found this site I had to pace around a square kilometre or so of land based on people vaguely waving a hand and saying 'It's over there somewhere'. Hmm..
Local Garfagnana links
Canyoning
Other useful climbing and caving links
|
