Dive Site: Grotta Giusti, Italy — scubadiverlife.com

Every time I come home to Italy, and specifically to Tuscany, I get the urge to visit my friends at Grotta Giusti. This extraordinary place, totally unique among its kind, is located in Monsummano Terme in the province of Pistoia. Grotta Giusti is an underground karst cave, which intersects with a thermal aquifer som feet from the surface, and takes its name from the Giusti family, owners of the limestone quarry which once stood here. The cave itself was discovered by pure chance, in the spring of 1849, when some quarry workers broke through the roof of the cavity; by throwing stones into the void they quickly realized they had stumbled upon an important discovery, an impressively vast underground cavity with the presence of water. I often imagine those first wide-eyed excursions into this hot and humid underground world; lamp-lit explorations, which slowly revealed the mysterious 1,000-foot cavity in all its natural glory, with lakes, winding corridors, stalactites and stalagmites. The elevated internal air and water temperatures, the humidity level and the impressive size of the cave led the owner, Domenico Giusti, to consider the possibility of its therapeutic potential, and in fact a spa complex was built around the entrance to the cave just a few years later. The waters, at 93F (34C), were indeed beneficial and Grotta Giusti’s fame quickly spread throughout Italy and abroad.

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