Beneath the mountain, in the heart of the apple

An itinerary of nature, ingenuity, and flavors

Puoi accedere solo con una guida, in piccoli gruppi.

You can only access the caves with a guide, in small groups.

The starting and ending point is MondoMelinda, which welcomes you in its new and elegant building. It was built by the Melinda Consortium, which—with its more than 4,000 members united in 16 cooperatives—harvests 400,000 tons of apples every year, equal to about one-fifth of the entire Italian production.

Recently, the "Apple Cable Car" became operational. It is the world's first ropeway system dedicated to transporting fruit, conceived by Melinda and partly funded by the European Next Generation EU program managed by the Ministry of Agriculture.

The underground caves preserve fresh apples in a special environment, where the rock guarantees ideal temperature and humidity, reducing energy consumption and respecting nature.

The work, which is almost completely automated, takes place in bright tunnels and large spaces, far from the clichés of dark caves. Here, Melinda apples await their journey to the tables of half of Europe.

Discovery, taste, and cooperation

In addition to the cable cars that transport the apples to the underground caves, the guided tour allows you to see the warehouse up close, where the fruits are sorted using state-of-the-art machinery and under the watchful eye of the women in charge of packaging. The Melinda Producers Consortium protects traditions: every apple is the result of teamwork that unites hundreds of families in the valley through cooperative management of agricultural production and marketing.

At the end of the tour, a stop at the new store is a must: here you can taste and buy apples of every variety, juices, sweets, products, and apple-based snacks. A genuine way to bring a piece of this land back home.