Underground Marche: a journey through tunnels, cisterns and galleries

You arrive in Osimo and everything seems clear: a compact, elegant centre, where distances are short and things are understood at first sight. You walk through squares and past palaces and feel like you have everything under control. Then you discover that there is almost another city below. And the amazing thing is that you don't have to imagine it: you can actually go in.
From the entrance to the Grotte del Cantinone, at the IAT office in Via Fonte Magna, you begin your descent accompanied by those who know these passages well. It only takes a few steps to change the pace: the light dims, the air becomes cooler, the noise stays above. In front of you, you will not find a simple cave, but the first section of a much larger system: the route you can visit extends for a few hundred metres, but it is part of an underground network that as a whole exceeds nine kilometres and extends over several levels.
These spaces did not all come into being at the same time. The subsoil has been excavated, expanded and reused for centuries: for water, to store food, to move around unseen, to find refuge. The wells connected the different levels, brought air and light, and connected the below with the above.
Along the Cantinone route, you will mainly encounter figures and symbols linked to religion and everyday life. In other, less accessible spaces, the language changes: it becomes more complex and less immediate, and introduces a symbolism that over time has suggested private meetings and rituals. In the private caves, which can only be visited on certain occasions, there are symbols such as the Triple Wall or the eight-pointed cross, which scholars have linked to the presence of orders such as the Templars in the area.
Even more recent history has passed through here. During the Second World War, these tunnels once again became real shelters, and among the oldest signs, names and dates left in haste still emerge.
Down below, the temperature remains cool all year round: with a sweatshirt and comfortable shoes, you can move around without distractions, letting the spaces tell the story.
The visit to the Grotte del Cantinone lasts less than an hour, but time is perceived differently down here. And when you return to the surface, you are left with the feeling that you have only seen a part of something much larger.

In Camerano, the entrance to the caves is in the square, among houses and shops. Enter from there, without looking for anything hidden, and a few metres below the village, it completely changes shape.
Beneath the historic centre there is an underground network of about two or three kilometres, with a route of about one kilometre that can be visited. Here you won't find simple tunnels, but carefully constructed spaces: rooms, corridors, vaults, details that make you think more of designed spaces than functional ones.
As you walk, you realise that each room has its own identity. The walls are carved, the heights change, columns, niches and decorations appear. It is not a "raw" subsoil: it is a place that has taken on an increasingly defined form over time.
The functions have overlapped. A refuge, a storehouse for food and wine, a meeting place, sometimes a place of worship. Some rooms suggest private meetings, others more collective occasions. The presence of religious and esoteric symbols has fuelled hypotheses and stories over time. During the Second World War, these caves once again became refuges. Once again, the underground became a necessary space.
Here, too, you enter accompanied and stay underground for about an hour. The air is cool even in the middle of summer, around 14 degrees: between stairs and uneven passages, moving calmly and with suitable clothing helps you to really grasp the sense of the rooms.

In Piagge, in the municipality of Terre Roveresche, everything changes scale. Here you will not find an extensive underground city like in Osimo or Camerano, but a single, intimate, almost hidden space.
Descending below the walls of the village, at a depth of about seven metres, you enter with your guide into a space carved out of sandstone, where the temperature remains constant at around 15°C. After a short tufa staircase, you find yourself in a space that resembles a small church in structure: a central nave, an apse, and side arms that open out perpendicularly. The dimensions are small, but the feeling is clear.
The origins of the hypogeum are not entirely clear: it is thought to have been built in the Middle Ages, although some elements refer to an older tradition. The lack of documents has left room for different interpretations, but the structure and decorations have led many scholars to consider it a place of worship, probably used by small groups, in a private manner.
The walls and ceiling retain simple but significant symbols: geometric figures, stylised flowers, crosses. Signs that recall early Christianity, when religious language was still mixed with older symbols. Some motifs, such as the six-petalled flower or the lily, recur several times and accompany the gaze throughout the space.
Over time, this space has also changed its function. In later periods, it was used as a storage room and, during the Second World War, it once again became a refuge. Yet its structure, which has remained intact, continues to suggest a secluded, almost secluded use.
Here, too, you do not enter alone: step by step, the guide helps you to interpret a space that may seem simple at first glance, but which reveals much more as you observe it. When you stop in the centre, you will naturally raise your eyes to the ceiling: it is a small space, but that is where everything is concentrated.

In Fermo, you only have to go below the historic centre to realise that the subsoil works differently here. You don't have to imagine or interpret: you move through a space that you understand immediately.
Entering the Roman cisterns, you begin to walk through rooms that follow one another with an almost hypnotic regularity. Thirty rooms arranged in parallel rows, connected by arches and covered by barrel vaults: after a few steps you realise that you are not in a "hidden" space, but in a system built to function. It is no coincidence that this is one of the largest and best-preserved hydraulic complexes in the world, designed according to principles that also refer to Vitruvius' instructions.
The walls tell the whole story. The Roman concrete, the waterproof plaster that is still perfectly legible, the ducts, the ventilation shafts: every element has remained almost intact and allows you to understand how the water was collected and made to flow from one room to another, without any leakage.
Don't look for the curious detail, but look at the whole. The repetition of the spaces – one room, then another, then another – will help you understand how the entire system works, and with it the organisation of the city, capable of distributing water even over long distances.
Over time, these rooms have changed function several times. Thanks to the constant temperature, they were used as wine cellars, then as service spaces, and, between the 16th and 19th centuries, also as prisons. During the Second World War, they became air-raid shelters: if you look carefully, you can still find words such as "calm" or "exit" written along the walls, drawn to help people find their way around at a time when they were simply seeking protection down here.

In Monsampolo del Tronto (AP), the subsoil does not appear as a single large space, but as a more compact network, directly linked to the houses and the life of the village.
Under the Terra Vecchia hill, there is an underground route of about 120 metres, divided into several levels and at a depth that varies from 5 to 15 metres. Between tunnels, passages, stairways, brick rooms and sections carved out of the rock, a system takes shape that connected the cellars and noble palaces of the Guiderocchi and Malaspina families.
Its function is immediately clear: to preserve food, store wine, and make use of the constant temperature and humidity. But that's not all. Some passages also served as escape routes, hidden connections between buildings, spaces to be used in times of need. If you look closely, you will recognise very specific details: alcoves, circular pits used as silos, cobbled floors, small rooms that tell of daily and continuous use.
Here you will not find a single project, but a stratification of interventions. The spaces change shape, adapt, connect with each other almost spontaneously, following the structure of the village above.
Again, you will be accompanied by a guide who will help you find your way around spaces that would be more difficult to understand on your own. Rather than looking for an overall structure, it is natural to dwell on the details. Look at how the spaces are made, how they connect with each other, how materials and shapes change: they are all elements that tell the story of the life of the village.