Lakes of Monticchio: Guided Private Walking Tour – Apulia, Italy

EXPERIENCE:

Your full-day lakes tour will begin from the Abbey of St. Michael Archangel and the ruins of the Abbey of Sant’Ippolito. Your trip will then continue towards the wildest big lake, which is often visited for sports fishing.

The lakes occupy the crater mouths of the ancient volcano of Vulture 658 meters above sea level and communicate with each other through a channel of water fed by underwater springs. The ring route will take you to visit the shores of the small lake really pleasant and uncontaminated until you reach along a slight climb the Abbey of St. Michael the Archangel of the 8th-century, built around a cave built by the Basilian monks present with settlements throughout Southern Italy. Managed today by the Capuchin Fathers, it will be possible to visit the cave with the church with three naves and a small museum with wooden sculptures of the major Italian monuments and some cells of the friars.

The visit continues going down towards the lakes and visiting the ruins of the 11th-century abbey of Sant’Ippolito, also built by the Basilian monks.
Upon booking, it will also be possible to visit the Vulture Natural History Museum set up on the first two floors of the Abbey. You will retrace the history of the Vulture and the volcano through interaction and a journey back in time: you start from a suggestive representation of the recent journey of man in the Vulture, to go to the history of animals and plants to finally reach to prehistoric man and the ancient fauna of the Vulture. Great evidence within the museum has the Brahmaea Europaea, a rare nocturnal butterfly discovered in the woods of Monticchio. The tour ends with a view of the large lake, often visited by sport fishing enthusiasts.

TOUR HIGHLIGHTS:

Discover the two lakes, the ancient craters of the volcano Vulture
Visit the Abbey of St. Michael the Archangel set in the rock
Explore the ruins of the ancient Abbey of St. Hippolytus

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