Giulio Cappa
Born in 1932, my speleological life starts at the end of 1949, guided into the well-known cave Buco del Piombo by Arrigo Cigna.
In 1950 I begin to explore caves and I become member of Gruppo Grotte Milano, one of the oldest caving associations in Italy, within the Italian Alpine Club, formerly in Milano section, then SEM section. I start surveying the caves. During the summer holidays, I go to the Apuanian Alps hunting for new caves; I'm guided to a mine, inside which I find a cave with fabulous formations; with my father's camera I take pictures with exposures of 10-15 mins each. They are a success. I show them in 1954 during the Congress in Trieste; professor Gortani ordered me to immediately present a report to be included in the proceedings. So I became a speleo-photographer and a scribbler and such I remained for the time on.
Together with other members of GGM and GSP-CAI UGET I participated to many summer camps in Lombardy, Piedmont, Sardinia, Apuanian Alps (with the unforgettable Professor Occhialini too!), Castrovillari, Mount Cervati, Gulf of Policastro. I continued to draw cave surveys, more and more, and to fill the speleological newsletters and congress proceedings with articles, and to take pictures. I let me involved, since the sixties, in that nuisance called "Catasto" (caves cadaster) and later, on this subject, I got all Italian cavers' goat.
Then I got to Rome and, being my wife a caver too, this activity became for me a second job; later, when I retired, the first job. I'm fully engaged with the studies on caves and karst in Latium, and with that of artificial cavities ("souterrains") too, to which I came through the study of hypogean sanctuaries; with my wife and son I make a sort of Speleological Group very efficient.
The big and deep caves are beyond my present capacities but still in 2002 I negotiated some nice very narrow passage. The caves can't be fully understood if we don't study the surface morphologies above; so while my son and his friends explore deep inside, with my wife we are engaged in surveys, researches and documentation: we can still indirectly but actively participate to the cavers new generation performances.
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