Capo Caccia & Nereo Cave · Italy · Wall · Cave & cavern
Il porticato
A hundred metres of wall strung with arches facing the blue
Area photo: Teresa Grau Ros from Barcelona · CC BY-SA 2.0
Il porticato is a wall dive on the Capo Caccia coast, run along the rock at an average depth of 22 m for about a hundred metres. Numerous arches face out into the blue along the way, and it is the run of them rather than any single swim-through that gives the site its name and its shape.
Also known as Portico Cave.
Where it is and how deep
40.5680° N, 8.1576° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
The dive is linear. You drop onto the wall and follow it at an average of 22 m for roughly a hundred metres, stone on one shoulder and open water on the other. The arches come one after another rather than as a single feature — openings in the rock facing out into the blue, which is what earns the site its name. It is their number, not any one of them, that makes the dive.
Held at more or less one depth, the profile is simple to plan: the hundred metres of wall is the route, and bottom time at 22 m is the limit on it rather than anything technical. It rewards a slow pace, since the arches are what there is to look at and they pass quickly at a swimming speed.
Marine life and season
The sources we used don't single out particular species here.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Fair | Fair |
Season follows Capo Caccia & Nereo Cave: May–Oct is the settled season; winter mistral and north-westerlies make the exposed cape unworkable for weeks at a time.
Questions divers ask
How deep is Il porticato?+
It runs along the wall at an average depth of about 22 m for roughly a hundred metres, so the profile stays close to that figure for the length of the dive.
Sources
- Il porticato - Alghero — Scubago
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