A cave is something mysterious, a place of fantasy but also science. Do you remember “Journey to the Center of the Earth” by Jules Verne? That is what I mean. And as you know, children (but also adults!) are attracted to stories, especially those they can experience for themselves.

Just a few kilometres from Trieste, there is the Grotta Gigante, one of the natural spectacles to be included in the Guinness Book of Records: it is the tourist cave with the largest single cavern in the world. It is estimated that the cave is 10 million years old!

I, my husband and our 9 month old daughter went to visit it during the Christmas holidays, in December: in my opinion, winter is the perfect time to visit it with small children. Because inside the cave there is a constant temperature of 11°C and so you do not feel much of a change of temperature.

To visit the cave, you have to go down 500 steps and as many uphill. My advice for those with children under the age of three is to carry them in a baby carrier, which will make it easier for both parents and children during the visit. If the children are older, there is no problem, as the visit takes place at a slow pace and with frequent stops.

The visits are always guided by specialised staff, who tell the story of the cave and explain the formation of stalactites, stalagmites and the uses of the cave for scientific purposes. The day we visited it, there were really many families with small children, who enjoyed dropping down into the bowels of the earth!

A peculiarity of caves is that you lose track of time and space: the visit, which lasts about an hour, seemed to fly past! And because of the excitement, our baby fell asleep in her baby carrier during the ascent!