Grotta del Gesso, a marvel in the Matese Regional Park

The “Grotta del gesso”, in the local dialect called "a rott' u ggìss'", is so called because carbonic acid, together with other chemical substances, dissolves the limestone and creates in the cave a layer of soft rock (very white, looking like gypsum) a few centimetres thick on top of the hard rock.

The whole “cave” looks like a huge room painted with white paint. Obviously you need a torch or a lantern to go through it.

The “cave” can be walked through without any problems and the floor slopes down towards the entrance. It is about 25 metres deep and at the far end there is a small spring of cool, clear water, where in the past the shepherds went to drink when, from late spring to autumn, free-range grazing, especially of sheep, was widespread on Monte Mutria.
Old people say that the shepherds sometimes spent the night there with their flocks, the “cave” being an excellent shelter from rain and bad weather. In this way they also saved a few hours of tiring walking with the animals, needed to go down to the sheepfolds at the foot of the Monte Mutria ridge and to climb back up the next morning.

The mountain area where the “cave” lies commands vast and evocative views in almost every direction. And this does a great deal to make the “cave” even more interesting, as well as beautiful.

It is also striking that in that place, because of the steep slopes and the rough ground, the trees are never felled and die of old age. Even the dead branches and trunks, since they cannot be carried away, rot where they lie and turn into “humus”.

How do you get to the "Grotta del Gesso"?

You obviously reach the “cave” on foot, by two possible alternative routes. Both are very evocative and take more or less the same time: on average from an hour and a half to two hours.

The slightly less tiring route seems to be the one that reaches the “cave” from the north-east, that is from “Pesco Rosito”, a large rocky spur at the start of the “La Torta” wood, west of the Passo di Santa Crocella, in the territory of Pietraroja.
The wood, fairly well known by reputation, is a vast, unbroken beech forest several kilometres long. It begins in the territory of Pietraroja and continues in the territory of Guardiaregia (in the province of Campobasso) as far as the "Sella del Perrone", where the territory of Piedimonte Matese (in the province of Caserta) begins.

Right on the "Sella del Perrone" there is a crossroads that lets you go in 4 different directions:
1) - Guardiaregia (CB),
2) - Lago Matese and Piedimonte Matese - CE (passing through San Gregorio Matese and Castello Matese);
3) - Campitello Matese (CB)
4) - Bocca della Selva.

The other route, just as interesting, reaches the “cave” from almost the opposite direction, that is from the west, starting on foot from the locality of Sambuco di Monte Mutria, on the Sud-Matese panoramic road, about 4 km before you reach Bocca della Selva on the way up from Pietraroja. Along this route, which begins in the territory of Cusano Mutri (BN), you pass the “Fontana dell'Acera”, the highest of the springs.

From Pesco Rosito to the "Grotta del Gesso"

The large rocky spur at the start of the “La Torta” wood, known as “Pesco Rosito”, owes its name (shown on topographic maps) to the fact that the area is particularly rich in dog roses, called “rosa ianara” by the local people.

You get to “Pesco Rosito” by car. Coming up from the south (on the Benevento side) towards the “Passo di Santa Crocella”, before reaching the “Pass” (about 2 km before) you turn left and drive across the “Parata Tufo” (a vast grazing area, with few trees), as far as “Pesco Rosito”, which can be seen from far away.

Having left the car at “Pesco Rosito” (at 1195 metres a.s.l.), you carry on on foot westwards, tackling the north slope of the “Palumbaro”.

Walking rather slowly, so as not to tire too soon, given the demanding route and the relative lack of oxygen at that altitude, after a little over an hour, stopping now and then for a short break “to catch your breath”, you come up onto the “Palumbaro” at 1375 m a.s.l.

Naturally you follow a very precise route which, for anyone going there for the first time (and perhaps the next time too), calls for the help of an expert guide.

In the mountains you don't fool around: it's easy to lose your way (especially in areas covered by rather dense woods) and if fog suddenly comes down, the situation can become really complicated for the inexperienced.

Once on the “Palumbaro”, you carry on westwards for a few hundred metres more, keeping more or less the same altitude. You climb just 25 metres more, to 1400 m a.s.l., where, on the edge of the precipices and crags of the front side (facing south) of the “Palumbaro”, you take the little path (rather steep and not easy to find in its first part) that lets you go down, slowly and with some care, to the fascinating “Grotta del gesso” (at 1315 m a.s.l.).

How to locate the cave from a distance

The entrance of the “cave” cannot be seen from a distance, especially when the beech trees in front of the cave are in leaf.
But even in winter, with the trees bare, the entrance of the cave would be visible (and only in part) only with the help of a powerful optical instrument (for example a telescope) from the area of the Parco Geopaleontologico or from the RAI transmitter at Pietraroja, or from some parts of the Cusano Mutri basin. But even with the help of a telescope, it isn't easy to pick out the spot where the “cave” is, and where to point the instrument, among the rocky crags of the “Palumbaro”.

Obviously for people who know the area well and who know the “cave” (but they are few) the question of difficulty changes almost entirely.