Cavers with kit bags in a lit cave passage Under the ground

Wading the Falvaterra underground river, blue route

Falvaterra

You walk up the river instead of beside it, in a wetsuit, with water round your legs and the roof coming down to meet it in places. The names underground are good: the beach hall, Moby Dick.

How the day goes

  1. Kit up at the entrance — wetsuit, neoprene boots, helmet and lights are handed out.
  2. Into the water and upstream, past the kettles the current has drilled into the floor.
  3. The waterfall and the rapid, then the abandoned meanders where the river used to go.
  4. Out, changed, and back in the daylight with the Sacco valley to drive home through.

You will be wet, in the dark, in places where the passage narrows — the tourist route through the same cave stays dry and lit.

Where it is

Falvaterra at its real position from Rome, with everywhere else we list behind it — so you can see how far out this one is.

Falvaterra, and where it is from Rome Falvaterra drawn at its real position relative to Rome, about 88 minutes by car. The faint dots are the other places we list, so you can see how far out this one is. 88 min Rome Falvaterra

Open it where the roads are

Takes you to Strada provinciale per Castro dei Volsci SP 155, km 2,300 - 03020 Falvaterra (FR), the address the operator publishes.

Getting there

Getting there, the comfortable way

  • 1 h 28drive from the middle of Rome
  • 106 kmeach way
  • 2 honce you are there

  • Rent a car for the day

    The day stays yours: you leave when you want, stop where you want, and come back when the light goes.

    • You pick it up in Rome and drop it back in Rome
    • No timetable to build the day around
    • The stops on the way are the good part, and they need a car

    Affiliate link — you pay their price, never more, and they pay us. You book with Localrent, and anything about that booking goes through them.

    See prices on Localrent

  • Have a driver take you, door to door

    No parking to find, no wrong turns, and you leave when the day is done.

    • Picked up where you are staying, dropped back there
    • No parking to find and no ZTL to worry about
    • Nobody spends the day driving

    Affiliate link — you pay their price, never more, and they pay us. You book with Welcome Pickups, and anything about that booking goes through them.

    See prices on Welcome Pickups

Also around Falvaterra

More under the ground

Stalactites lit inside a show cave Under the ground

Pastena caves

Walk into the hill on wet steps, in a guided group of no more than twelve.

€10 per person

Books on grottepastenacollepardo.it

See the day
Cavers with kit bags in a lit cave passage Under the ground

Speleo-canyoning in a hidden cave

A trip that combines caving with canyoning progression techniques: you walk through underground chambers, cross fixed sections and rope traverses with a helmet, harness and head…

See the day

We have not verified this one yet. Everything below comes from the operator and we have not checked it — treat it as a lead, not as a listing.

Photograph by Vkrzalic, Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 4.0. Not this place: it shows what the day looks like, and will be replaced with the operator's own photograph or ours from the field.

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