My title really should be “a climb down memory lane” because what I’m remembering is a visit to the Frasassi Caves back when I was living in Italy in the early 2000’s.
I hadn’t thought about it in years and years, but Andrea Bocelli just did a Facebook Live event in the caves and seeing that brought the memories flooding back.
The virtual tour video (above) will give you some sense of the immensity of the experience. I’ll never forget how small and insignificant I felt as we climbed down and down and down, moving through chamber after chamber of the caves — each larger and more fantastic than the last.
I also remember the constant dripping; the almost eerie stillness of the standing pools; and how cold it was compared to the warm weather aboveground.
I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to see such wonders, but I don’t know that I could do it again. I don’t consider myself claustrophobic, but I did find that I got rather uncomfortable the deeper into the earth we went. I had to work really hard to keep my imagination from dwelling on just how much dirt was sitting above our heads or wondering what would happen if there was an earthquake!