What do you see when you look at mountains? Do you limit yourself to admiring their majesty or do you look for what they can hide within? Have you ever walked through meadows and woods with your family, and suddenly your mother-in-law is swallowed up by a mysterious hole in the ground?

If, like me, you have visited the Alta Val Torre, less than 30 kilometres from Udine, you may have come across many signs indicating the existence of another world under your feet.

Leaving Tarcento behind, we head into the narrow valley where the Torre torrent runs much lower than the road. If it has rained, you might see some waterfalls on the sides of the mountains. That is already a signal, for upstream of the cascade there is often a cave. As it runs along the valley bottom, the Torre collects the waters that emerge from a vast number of caves. Here we are in a very important karst area, which extends between the municipalities of Tarcento, Nimis, Lusevera and Taipana and represents a unique feature of the area.

Hundreds of caves hidden beneath breathtaking views, guarded in unspoilt places despite being close to city centres, and to be discovered by walking along paths and forest tracks in the silence that enshrouds the woods.

In the summer, take a good look around: if you see any small doline or sinkholes, you are walking over a cave. In the winter, when it snows, you may come to places where the snow has melted, leaving grassy areas of terrain that are almost circular. This means that below, there is a cave whose air, warmer than that outside, rises and melts the snow outside as it emerges.

Are you still thinking about your mother-in-law? If you behave yourself and avoid asking me into which sinkhole you might drop her, in my next stories I'll take you on a voyage of discovery of some of the most beautiful places above and below the Alta Val Torre!