Massimo's photoblog

This photo shows the “gias Funtena” in the Park “Alta Valle Pesio” (Cuneo province, northern Italy). “Gias” are constructions used in summer by shepards while tending their cows and goat herds on the Alps in the south of Piemonte. The rocky wall in the background is the “Pis du Pes” (literally, “piss of the Pesio river”), which is the spring of the main river in the valley. Behind the wall there is an extensive cave system (the second largest in Italy), which feeds on the winter snows accumulating on the carstic plateau between this part of Italy and France. The caves contain subterran lakes, that in spring fill up and overflow through a system of conduits in the middle of the rocky wall, generating a powerfull fall that lasts a few weeks (usually in April - May). I have actually been in one of the caves of the system (these are not turistic caves, you can only access them with special gears and trained cavers).