The Toirano Caves are home to one of Liguria’s most fascinating karst cave systems. The route winds through the heart of the mountain, among vast chambers, passages and formations slowly shaped by water over time.
But their significance is not only geological. Numerous traces of the cave bear (Ursus spelaeus), an extinct species that used these caves as a refuge during the Pleistocene, have been found in the Bàsura Cave.
Even more extraordinary is the evidence left behind by humans. Footprints, handprints and knee prints document the presence of Homo sapiens in the cave around 14,000 years ago.
Among these are traces left by children, together with marks made by handling the soft clay on the cave walls: small gestures that take us back thousands of years and offer a surprisingly familiar glimpse of adults and children exploring the cave together.
During the tour, scientific interest also gives way to wonder. The caves open into increasingly spacious chambers, with vast natural halls, walls shaped by water and formations of surprising shapes and sizes. Stalactites, stalagmites, columns and limestone curtains seem to fill every space, creating remarkable natural architecture.
In some sections, you find yourself standing before imposing chambers, slowly carved by water over thousands of years, where your gaze keeps moving from ceiling to floor, following shapes, colours and details.
It is one of those routes where it feels natural to slow down, stop and let the shapes of the rock capture your attention.
