Since this site’s inscription in 2023, I had a mental block about it caused by its name. I had no idea what “Evaporitic” meant (the Dutch Wikipedia page referring to this WHS conveniently leaves this word out), and then there is also the always-dreaded “Caves”. I didn’t rush to go there, but a trip with my Art History friends to Northern Italy prompted me to add a day in Bologna to get this one over with.

Speleology is at least half of its OUV, but the horror stories of Tsunami were enough for me to not try that here. So I took a different approach to the Gessi Bolognesi: cruising around the landscape on an e-bike, looking for visible gypsum strata and ‘holes’ in the rock walls.

-- First: Geology for Dummies --

“Evaporitic Karst” just means rock with holes and dents in it (such as caves and sinkholes). They could have easily called the WHS “Gypsum Karst” but to be precise there’s another mineral (anhydrite) in there as well. Both are relatively soft and soluble and thus evaporate easily when in contact with water. Another big word to know in this context is “epigenic” – meaning that they (the gypsum/anhydrite sediment layers) were formed later than the surrounding or underlying rock formations. 

-- So I finally figured it out. End of lesson --

Bike rental in Bologna turned out to be a completely different experience from what I had in Japan just 2 weeks before. I had re-entered the world of locks, hefty deposits, online pre-bookings and paperwork fit for a mortgage. I got an e-bike from this company; be aware that their prices and opening hours aren’t exactly what is displayed on the website. The bike was good, the service was surrounded by some Italian drama.

I had mapped out a 30km long route in advance to explore 3 valleys. But it started to rain already before I even left the city of Bologna. Fortunately, I brought a transparent plastic bag to wrap my phone in so I still could navigate. The Google Maps cycle route goes through parks and uses special bicycle paths.

It took a very long time before any rocks and hills became visible: only about two kilometers before my first destination, Farneto (upper photo). The Farneto Cave is one of the most important of the Gessi Bolognesi. While its interior can only be visited by appointment and via a specialist guided tour, you can walk to the entrance on other days. I noticed a whole school class doing that when I went by, but I found it too muddy.

The valleys here are parallel north-south and are not connected east-west - so you have to go up and down different roads to just enter the very narrow core zone at different places. So I cycled back the same way for a while and then turned onto the Via Croara. This road is a lot steeper, I could just about manage the climbs in first gear and with the electric support. There were even fewer views of rock faces here than along the previous road.

Some of the "holes" in this landscape are not natural, but man-made. Cava a Filo (lower photo), for example, is a former gypsum quarry that provided building materials. During mining, they found remains of extinct animal species there, as well as bones that show the evolutionary development of the wolf. It's the starting point of some trails as well, it looked like an interesting place to explore in better weather.

I had a third stop in mind beforehand (at the Parcheggio La Palazza, close to a sinkhole and the Spipola cave), but I was wet enough by now and rushed back to Bologna. Fortunately, it now was almost entirely downhill.

In total I cycled toward and in the Gessi Bolognesi component for almost 3 hours, about half of which was in pouring rain. It is certainly doable by bike and in better weather, you can take side trips and do some short hikes. Finding a safe spot to park the bike can be an issue.

P.S.: My low rating is not only caused by the circumstances of my visit; there are much better examples of gypsum karst globally than this and also the interpretation on the ground (at least at Gessi Bolognesi) is too limited for a WHS (there are no UNESCO signs either let alone a plaque, no English translations; it still looks like a regional park only).