Ricordi, di Antonello Antonelli

Memories
by Antonello Antonelli

    A phone call: "Hello, I am Alberta...". There is no need to hear more, I recognise her voice and a river of memories comes to my mind. Her chat is familiar to me although we did not meet for twenty years!
    "Write down something... this year we celebrate the Forty-Years of the Speleo Club Roma ...". So here I am, but it is not easy: not all the names, people, characters, situations, experiences are clear in my mind because the time has confused many things .
    I was young and thoughtless, a university student, I loved nature and I collected minerals; I passed the IX Course of Speleology of the S.C.R., it was mythical because there were Chiarantini, Dente, Giudici, Marinucci, whose presence have been very important to the Club in the following years. So I became a member and an active caver for nine years.
    At that time we had an underground meeting room in Catullo street, but after one year we have been evicted so we decided to meet at "Gli Scopini" beerhouse, placed by the corner of Terenzio Road, premises that we used to frequent since years, drinking many jugs of beer, eating crisp and buttered rosette bread, anchovies and peanuts. Then came the centre in Andrea Doria street, first it was of three rooms and a toilet, then after some year we opened the fourth room. It was like a dream for us and we worked a lot on restoring the rooms, bit by bit and with rigorous economy.
    Let's go back to my story, though it is not exceptional. The Course accentuated my love for the nature and opened the doors to a new world that is unknown to most people, sometimes is monotonous, disappointing, hostile, a world where fatigue and hostility where common but sometimes they rewarned me with unique visions, unrepeatable sensations and physical satisfaction. According to me speleology links together beauty, sport and research.
    At the beginning my activity was various and firm, I had no specialisation but day by day my friendship with other members became stronger and I held them in high esteem; then slowly I became a committed member. Those who have always lived in a big city, where people usually ignore each others, face some difficulties when joining an Association, where people are tightly linked to each others and meet at the centre to have familiar talkings: that is involving for anyone. How can I forget the great esteem I had for Giorgio Pasquini, who was whimsical and involving for the operative choices, Maurizio Sagnotti's organisational seriousness, who succeeded to Pasquini as the chairman of our group, Alberta Felici's rigorous rationality, she directed me toward the search and exploration of new caves, Andrea Maniscalco's patience and availability? He was a qualified geologist, in fact after discovering and exploring the Vermicano cave, I annoied him several days trying to talk about its speleogenesis. I want to remember some other names: captain Testa, I hope he's a colonel now, doctor Lunghini - a botanist, Alessandro, Annamaria, Bianchetti, Corinaldesi, Cristina, Crucitti, Daniela, Giovannella, Genovesi, Gresele, Moriconi, Nino, Papadia, Petruccioli, Timpone, Torrice, Zampighi and all friends of the Carpineto Romano section. To those I have not mentioned: I remember shapes and events, so do not feel offended.
    As you already know, after one year I started to look for new caves.
    At first my activity was a little confused. I went a few times to Gallo, in the Matese massif, where I discovered some caves. Then I went to the Aurunci mountains and then to the Tiburtini. Sometimes I helped Alberta in her systematics search on mount Semprevisa. At last I started to go caving on the Ernici massif.
    My operative method was very simple: chosen an area of one massif, I went to see all the caves already known by cartographic position and internal morphology, and I wrote on a notebook any difference I noticed; furthermore I searched for mentions of new caves on the bibliography of the area - we had some books for that purpose at our centre, on the maps made by ACI [Italian Club of Motorcars] and IGM [Military Geographical Institute of Italy] and on the reports of the past expeditions. Besides, after any expedition, I used to spend some time at the villages that were near the caves trying to become friend with local people, especially foresters and shepherds, and get informations about new caves, hoping they would take me to the entrances. Through the year I did not only explore new caves but I went to the old ones with my friends and I took also part to the summer camps, compatibly with my cash, and I was instructor at the annual Course.
    After many searches and delusions - the new caves were often very small and only 30 or 50 meters deep, I was taken by few countrymen to the entrance of Vermicano cave. That day we had limited materials so we descended only the first 50 meters of the pot-hole, that is 115 meters deep. That very evening we told to the group about our exploration. I remember Chiarantini's unusual serious face while I was telling him that maybe we had discovered a big cave. The next Sunday there were ten friends working at the entrance of Vermicano. I felt very happy. We worked inside the cave from September to November then we stopped because it was Winter and we had the Course, too. In Spring we came back to the cave and we worked hard ending with a summer camp. We placed an iron door to close the entrance because one day we found a reckless countryman that was trying to go down the 115 meters pot with an home made ladder of thin wire! The gate was pulled off some years later by an opposing Association.
    Many are the memories about Vermicano: sleeping inside a sleeping-bag on the snow near the entrance, as I was member of the support team; the problems we encountered while we were placing the telephone wire, that must be kept far from the ladders; the difficulties due to the morphology and the constant presence of water, especially in the second tract of the cave; the joy of hearing at the telephone: "It goes on!", coming from cavers that were at the deep hall; the delusion when we heard: "It ends", though we were happy because the cave was very deep and important for its hidrogeology. I still thank the group to give me the honour of surveying the final tract of Vermicano: at that time it was the deepest gallery of Lazio region.
    I've practised speleology for a couple of years after exploring Vermicano, then I gave it up because I went to live and work out of Rome. My friends used new techniques for going down in the caves: ropes instead of ladders. According to me, at that time ropes were not very trusty. In my nine years of caving I did 400 explorations so it happened that now and then I had rheumatic aches, this was another reason to give up speleological activity.
    I often remember the old good times: we were young, care-free, good friends, we did so many things. Sometimes I would like to go to Andrea Doria street but I live far from the city, I am busy, I would surely find a different setting and feel out of place. I also fear that someone may ask me to join an exploration and my old passion may wake up again. In fact to me makes no sense going to the Seat just to have a drawing-room conversation and not making plans to go exploring the next week-end. I also fear that I would be unuseful for young people that are in shape and with a speleological future in front of them.
    I did all that I could and that I should do and I remember it with joy. In the end a memory means to recall what have happened and that is unrepeatable.

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