It is highly likely you will be excitedely planning your Green adventures in Slovenia with just one big cave and a little train ride in mind, so probubbly the last thing you want to hear about now is another epic cave that is not even in Slovenia, but just over the paper border in Italy!

Well it is not really your fault that you only heard about one amazing cave, but hold onto your false teeth when we now tell you there are actually over 30 world class show caves here, each one completely different to the other and almost certainly each one better than the best cave you have at home, that is how enormous and spectacular the caves here are!

Pretty much the only one that bothers to do any marketing at all is the massive Postojna cave and it is so heavily marketed all over your phone and plastered over billboards, that if you just click around, you could easily make the huge mistake to think it is the only cave worth visiting here.. 

Exiting the cave you are greeted with a spring garden, but through that hole is a 100 metre drop to the centre of the planet..

It might even be the cave for you.. Let's be clear, if you JUST visited the Postojna cave, as many phone monkeys do, it would almost certainly be the best cave you ever saw to date or could imagine seeing and we recommend you should experience it once in your lifetime..

Having said that, we have enjoyed multiple underground adventures to many of those "other" caves that you might well now be itching to know about, and you can read more about some of them, if you like, in our CAVES section on this website, where you will see that in our humble opinion, Postojna might not even get into our into our own top 10 cave experiences here in the European capital of Caves.. so good, varied and amazing is the real unfiltered cave choice!

So what chance then does Grotta Gigante cave have of grabbing your attention, now sitting just over a border drawn on a map and created by men with big moustaches & even bigger guns after WW2, when a big chunk of Slovenia was bolted onto Italy!

The guiding is excellent here, with Italian first and English second, after the Italian speakers have moved on to the next spot..

It even took us 12 years living here in Green Paradise before we did this cave tour, taking the short 25 min journey down the motorway from the Lodge and driving straight across the border near Opcine to arrive in another Green Paradise that looks a bit Italian now, but will still remind you a lot of good old Slovenia, cos it is made of exactly the same massive Karst leaky limestone plateau where many of the best Slovenian caves can be found in the Green Karst and the Red Karst!

Well, we are happy to sing about Grotta Gigante from the cliff tops of the tiny Italian Karst region that snuggles in between Slovenia and the pretty city of Trieste far below on the Adriatic sea.. 

We cannot believe we left it so long to visit, but of course this is partly to do with that list of Slovenian caves as long as a Dragon's tail that you now know about and other amazing Green treasures to go see near the Lodge, but now we are gonna tell you all about the fab afternoon out we had at the uber enormous Grotta Gigante, how easy it is to reach from the Lodge AND what else you could get up to on your unexpected Italian adventure in the middle of your Green Slovenian hollibubbles!

The final flights of stairs up out of the cave, it actually isn't as bad going up here as it might seem when standing at the very bottom..

Getting to Grotta Gigante..

You can either go dreamy country roads or motorway to Opcine, the nearest town to the cave and then go direction Prosecco, yes Prosecco to get to a sleepy village with signs for the cave and a little free car park that is actually next to the EXIT of the cave.

This part of the world is very reminiscent to the Slovenian Red Karst, with low rock walls, small trees, Mediterranean vines and is surprisingly very green indeed.

You just walk from the car park along the walled road about 4 mins to the vistor centre, which is also where you buy your ticket and during this short transit you have actually been walking above the massive chamber that is Grotta Gigante!

This is the car park and the EXIT of the cave with a little shop and summer cafe.. Park here and walk 5 mins to the Visitor Centre..

By the way, don't be tempted to try to park outside the visitor centre as there is one lady in the visitor centre who seems to have the job of scaring off innocent visitors trying to park there and it is all too hot for that here!

There are a few tables in the garden here too where you might have a little picnic or watch the parking fiasco unfold..

This is the visitor centre where you buy the tickets and commence your tour..

Once inside the modern visitor centre you will start to understand & enjoy one of the extra special reasons why you should do this little hop over the border, cos of course the friendly staff are all Italian and you will now be effectively experiencing "how Italians do a Slovenian cave"!

It is very refreshing, fun and of course the English sounds a bit different here as you pinch yourself and think "YES I'm actually in Italy now, who cares what the car rental company think and I'm gonna be sipping a cappuccino soon too"!

The tour is in Italian & English and is very professional and well thought out as the Italian bit gets done first and then the Italian speakers wander off ahead so you can actually hear the English bit and boy, is it worth hearing about!

This is the biggest single dripstone in the cavern and the point where you start going up..

Why Should we visit Grotta Gigante?

Probably the very first thing you need to know in case it is something you cannot do, is this a walk into a massive hole with 500 steps down and 500 steps back up, which takes a generous bit over an hour, so will not put a dent in your day, but will certainly take the wind out of your sails and you will be needing that coffee when you get back to the exit & car park!

Some of our guests regularly check their daily footstep quota and most are pleasantly surprised how many steps you tend do here in Green Slovenia without even noticing, but we also point out that almost nowhere is flat here either, so a Slovenian step is worth 2 or 3 of your New York or Amsterdam ones and you will certainly earn every one of the 1,000 in this cave!

There are some particularly chunky stalegmite towers at the base of the cave..

It doesn't really feel like 500 steps down and actually up neither as you will be transfixed with the incoming and outgoing view of an almost 100m deep chamber with two enormous plastic knitting needles rising from the cavern floor to the roof.

You get to see the chamber from all angles and the tour is quite simple in essence, walk down, explore along the bottom of the cavern and then back up the other side.

We were not followed by a set of Zombies, fortunately, these lucky people were just transfixed by the amazing cavern that opened up in front of us.. however the younger people were actually zombies with their phones..

It doesn't even seem possible to make it up the other side when you are standing at the base next to the biggest pair of chop sticks you will ever see, but you will make it and there are plenty of stops for info from the lovely guide and other places to catch your breath & marvel at the different array of dripstones inside this massive hole.

In particular, there are severaly big stalagmite stacks and due to the huge distance between the roof and the base you get to walk through a little rock forest of short, fat "pancake" dripstones, which have round flat tops as the water drips from such a unique height and kinda sploshes on top of them.

Excellent examples of pancake dripstones down here as the water falls from such a great height from the roof of the cave almost 100 metres above..

Visting Santa will never be the same after you have seen this particular Grotta, which really is perfectly named.. It is simply a gigantic grotto.

It was discovered in the 1840's when engineers and explorers were looking for water sources for the ever growing city of Trieste, which is squeezed between the Adriatic sea and the highest cliffs in the Mediterranean.

Avid readers of this website will know that one member of the Lodge team has frustratingly wobbly knees when it comes to new heights, so we can absolutely reassure similar worriers that there is nothing to worry about on the ascent out of the cave, no scary drops, lots of rails & fantastic safe views and actually there is a little tunnel that hides away most of the vertigo inducing comas and whisks you to the exit before you even realise it, so this really is not an issue.. the steps and mild pysicality are the only thing to even consider about before deciding to do this particular Green adventure.

The drawing is in focus here and it shows there is an even deeper section of the cave you can also explore with ropes and ladders..

The Main Tour goes 100m below Terra Firma, but you could also go down the full 260m, if you book ahead!

Maybe we should also mention here that there is another far more narrow passage leading directly down 160m from the bottom of the main chamber with ladders, metal rails and other Indiana Jones kinda stuff to the very bottom of this cave where the water now flows.. a whopping Jules Verne 260m below the surface!

You need to book this extra 4hr tour ahead and a local caver goes with you, equipment is provided. Find out more & book on the excellent Grotta Gigante Website, if this is an adventure you want to try, but it is just another example of the quite literally "hidden" array of amazing activities you can get up to around here!

This rock tunnel brings you up almost to the top of the giant knitting needles..

What other Stuff is there to Do & See Nearby?

Now we have gotten over the thorny issue of spending even just half of one of your valuable Slovenian holibubble days in Italy, we need to tell you that there is a lot of other stuff near Grotta Gigante you could easily do if you get your logistics right and we are happy to help you with that..

Indeed, you might also be surprised to know that Venice is just a 1 hour 50 min drive direct by motorway from the Lodge, so some guests take maybe their one chance in their lives to go see the most famous island in the world as a daytrip from the Lodge.

Istrija in Croatia is also ridiculously close and some guests also pop off down there from the Lodge for a daytrip and to experience a "different country" inside their Slovenian adventure!

Your legs might wobble a bit when you reach the top of the cave next to these long plastic tubes..

You could easily do just a half day afternoon trip to Grotta Gigante and spend the evening exploring Trieste or having a meal in the beautiful nearby town of Opcine..

But there are plenty of other options for a full day trip in this part of the world, maybe starting in the morning by driving through one or two of the most beautiful Slovenian wine regions snuggled next to the border with this part of Italy and then popping to the cave past an unmanned empty window on a country road with only the sign to tell you are in another country..

There are fab castles too, the Austrian style white Miramare Castle sits down below on the coast, with fab gardens and cute little Duino Castle is perched on top of the cliff with a few surprises and the very attractive option of an epic Cliff top walk to Sistiana.

Explore the cute little Slovenian speaking villages now in Italy..

The largest Roman mosaic floor left in the world in Aquilea and the star shaped Venetian fortress city of Palmanova are just down the road.

Or maybe find out more about the history of Prosecco, tour Trieste, drive down the cliff and out of Italy via Magical Muggia, the last seaside town in Italy, the choice is absolutely massive and we are quite sure that most people who visit Slovenia have no idea how easy it would be to pop into Italy.. (this part is effectively old Slovenia).. to experience a bit of new Italy that you might never ever visit for a full holiday, but is perfect from the Lodge as an option for an unexpected day out sipping cappucinos and eating gelato!

There really is a lot of other stuff to do here and it totally depends on what type of thing you want to do, but those coming from countries where it feels a bit strange to simply cross a border into another country will love the thrill of being in Slovenia one minute and Italy the next!

Are these giant plastic chop sticks or do they protect delicate scientific equipment reaching 95 metres from cave floor to top..

On this particular day out we were busy looking after guests in the morning, so literally decided to do this mini adventure mid morning and popped out after lunch to reach the last cave visit and afterwards went to have a gelato and something to eat in Opcine, which is a very pleasant little border town in Italy nowadays, but still with a strong Slovenian influence.

And we are so glad we did, cos now we get to strongly recommend this massive, spectacular wonder of nature to you and put even more good pressure on your probubbly too short timescale.. but that is for you to correct in advance, if only you knew!

Oh yes and maybe you were wondering what those two huge plastic knitting needles are used for inside the cave and we always keep a few extra secrets back, so will let you find out more about them when you visit Grotta Gigante for yourself!