The Cave of the Wind is located in the province of Lucca, in one of the wildest areas of the Regional Park of the Apuan Alps. The name derives from the violent air current that runs through it, due to two inlets at different heights. The lower (tourist entrance) is located m. 627 above sea level, while the upper, impractical, is located eight hundred meters higher, at more than 1,400 meters high; the internal temperature constantly maintains on 10,7 degrees.
At the present time we know the cave for over four kilometers and still remain to be explored at least thirty branches. The works that were necessary to allow the public access were started in 1965.
The concretions that seem alive and brilliant; the beauty and color shades, the extraordinary variety of morphological aspects make the ‘Grotta del Vento’ a marvelous natural encyclopedia of the underworld. You will see siphons, smoothed by water galleries, halls adorned with “spaghetti” hanging from the ceiling; streams and ponds; admire stalagmites and stalactites of thousands of years and finally reach the the inner part, a well deep 90 metres.
The visit to the cave has three itineraries that explore three very different parts; the third is the most complete and is the longest in Italy. The “Cave of the Wind” is, in fact, divided into three parts, clearly differentiated by morphological characteristics: the first is mostly flat and is rich in limestone concretions; the second, which begins with a deep abyss and continues slightly downhill, is partly covered by an underground river; the third process is characterized by the presence of large vertical wells. This makes it possible to have multiple itineraries.
No other European Cave as much variety of features and such a wide choice of routes.
OPENING
All Sundays and festive, weekdays from April 1 to November 1 ° and from 26 December to 6 January:
1st itinerary: 10:00, 11:00, 12:00, 14:00, 15:00, 16:00, 17:00, 18:00;
2nd itinerary: 11:00, 15:00, 16:00, 17:00;
3rd itinerary: 10.00, 14:00.
Weekdays from 7 January to 31 March, from November 2 to December 24:
only the first route:
10:00, 11:00, 12:00, 14:00,
15:00, 16:00, 17:00, 18:00.
