canyon exploring with Michele Angileri

Fosso Gattaia

From the two small villages of Poggio Murella and Capanne, a stone's throw from the thermal baths of Saturnia, you see the gentle and relaxing landscape of tilled grounds and hills of the Albegna valley.
The two villages rise on two adjacent hills divided by Fosso Gattaia, a deep wooded valley that, thanks to a couple of compact rock outcrops, offers a gentle and relaxing canyoning route, in perfect harmony with the surrounding area.

I remember ...

The car plays a fundamental role in canyoning. The gorges are never near your house (in truth they are, but you have already descended that gorges, several times). So to descend a canyon you normally run 150-200 km in a day, but in some cases 500-600 km (for longer distances you should stay overnight). Since cars are subject to breakdowns and accidents, it sometimes happens that you pass the whole day waiting for the tow truck and your car to be repaired (if this happens on Sunday you might have to wait more than one day ...).

That time we had two cars coming from different places, getting there on different routes. While we were traveling, Paolo phoned us that his car had left him on the road. We resigned ourselves to doing the trip without Paolo and the others, but one hour later Paolo called us again telling us he was going to resolve the fault by replacing the battery.
So we took it slow. We found ourselves at the meeting place a couple of hours later than we had planned, but there was still plenty of time for the gorge and all went fine.

Photos and video by Michele Angileri and Giorgio Ecker

Copyright © 2002- Michele Angileri. All rights reserved.