1.30-hour visit to the Cisterns of Ancona

<div>Ancona is certainly a city waiting to be discovered and little known to the vast majority of people, both locals and those visiting the area. Among the most unusual attractions the city can offer, the underground is certainly one of the most unusual and with this guided tour, suitable even for those who have never worn a speleologist's helmet, we will take you to discover a part of it.</div><div><br></div><div>The city still has a vast system of tunnels, cisterns, reservoirs and water conduits of great engineering interest. Some of these have been lost due to the succession of ages, while some of them can still be visited today. Thanks to the painstaking work of a group of the city's spelolologists and the collaboration of the municipal administration, a search for some of these forgotten spaces began in 1984 in order to map them, to see where water still flows, and above all to allow anyone to learn about and see for themselves the history of the city's water supply.</div><div><br></div><div><div>The visit, which lasts about two hours, starts with a meeting with the cavers at the famous Calamo fountain near Piazza Roma; once you have signed the safety waiver, you will set off to visit the reservoir hidden in the buildings housing the fountain of the same name. Inside this, an environment redeveloped and refurbished for public use, speleologists will tell you the history of these hydraulic works and relate curiosities about the rediscovery of the tunnels of Ancona Sotterranea. Most of the information of the visit will be provided here, as the later rooms suffer from poor acoustics and are not suitable for conversation.</div><div><div><br></div><div>At the end of this first part, we move on to Piazza Stamira: upon arrival, cavers will make you put on boots and a helmet equipped with a light before descending into the subsoil of the Piazza where a cistern of approximately 4,000 square metres is hidden. By means of a manhole, the speleologists will help you descend below ground level and after a few steps you will find yourself in an underground world of darkness and water. The experts who will guide you know these spaces like the back of their hand and will show you how they have managed to find them. Wells, water cascades, sluices, tunnels, these are the elements you will see inside the cistern in Piazza Stamira, in a unique environment greatly enriching your knowledge about the city and the hydraulic systems of the past.</div></div></div>