canyon exploring with Michele Angileri

Fosso di Santopadre (Rio Armucci)

The sweet hills of Arpino and Santopadre, covered by gardens and olive-groves, are much like the hills of Umbria. Villages made of stone, farms and fields kissed by the sun ... as for Umbria hills you would never suppose there could be a canyon in a place like this.

But it is.
It's the canyon of Rio Armucci, known as Fosso di Santopadre. It has become one of the classic canyoning trails of Central Italy. It gives canyoneers fun, emerald water, plungeable cascades ... It gives the beauty of travertines, engaged pools, narrows and magnificent mediterranean vegetation. And it doesn't give trouble, so you can go through it without fearing anything bad, without having to plan any complex technical manoeuver.

Beautiful, funny and not hard, that's how this canyon is.

I remember ...

In those days I was working at my graduation thesis, and I used to work late at night at the university ... That night I worked till dawn, but I had planned to go exploring Santopadre canyon and I didn't want to give up. I went home at dawn, prepared the backpack, and left by motorcycle.
Once in the canyon all seemed to go ok, but I became sleepy, till I realized I had to fall asleep at least for a couple of hours. I didn't fall asleep, however, but the rest was enough to be able go on and complete the canyon.

The worst came while returning to town: I was going to fall asleep while driving my motorcycle! I don't know how I realized I was going to hit the guard-rail on right side of the highway, but I realized just in time!!

Photographs in this website show ultralight ropes (6 mm ropes made of high tenacity fibers). Read multimedia book Ultralight ropes canyoning technique to learn how to use them.

Copyright © 2002- Michele Angileri. All rights reserved.