With the name of "Sperlonga" climbers refer to a rocky area of the coastal strip between Sperlonga and Gaeta, which instead falls within the territory of the municipalities of Itri and Gaeta. Indeed they are the southern limestone walls of Monte Vannelamare (257 m), which close to the west the long beach of Sant'Agostino in a naturalistic context of particular beauty, theater of spectacular sunsets.
Sperlonga is the crag of Lazio where the sport climbing has really grown more than any other climbing crag, in fact, although many have understood the enormous possibilities, Roberto Ferrante with his "Spigolo di Ferrante" to the "Parete del Chiromante", and little after also Massimo Frezzotti, Fabio Delisi, Gualtiero Gianni, Giovanni Bassanini and Fabrizio Antonioli, the real turning point, the change of mentality that led to the realization of the "prototypes" of the current sporting itineraries, equipped with no more exploration and adventure in mind, but with the aim of overcome pure difficulty, exploded in the' 80s with the appearance on the scene of a large group of Roman climbers and climbers: Furio Pennisi, Stefano Finocchi, Cristiano Delisi, Luca Bucciarelli, Enrico Jovane, Paolo Caruso, Maurizio Tacchi, Marco Forcatura, Angelo Monti, Giorgio Mallucci, Roberto and Giuseppe Barberi, Paolo Rocca, Pierluigi Zolli, Roberto Ciato, Andrea Di Bari and Bruno Vitale. It is the season of competitions (Bardonecchia and Arco in 1985), while Sperlonga was compulsively frequented by a group of strong and young climbers that included, beyond the names mentioned so far, Alessandro (Jolly) Lamberti, Sebastiano Labozzetta, Luca Bevilacqua, Massimo Gambineri, Ignazio Tantillo, Alfredo Massini, Francesco Verdi, Laleh Brown, Antonella Strano and others who enjoyed climbing as a discipline be to exist per se, equipping and freeing single pitches and routes of considerable difficulty, which thirty years later testify the very high level reached at that time and that represent arduous tests for today's young generations of climbers, often amazed by the impressive compression of the evaluations attributed at that time and by the stories passed down on the distance of the original protections measurable in light years. Since the early years there have been many illustrious visits of famous alpinists and climbing figures including Manolo, Patrick Berhault, Marco Bernardi, Roberto Bassi, Andrea Gallo, Giovannino Massari and many others, who have played their part in making famous some itineraries of Sperlonga that gradually marked the "breakthrough" of the previous limits of difficulty. it is enough to mention, among many others, "Kajagogoo" (7a, 1983), "Blues per Allah" (7a +, 1984), "Reggae per Maometto" (7b +, 1984), "Polvere di Stelle" (7b +, 1984), " Elixir "(7b +, 1985)," Il Ricordo del Tempo "(8a, 1986) in the historical sectors of the "Parete del Chiromante" and of the "Fascia Superiore".
In the nineties the number of routes continues to grow steadily, together with the discovery of new sectors and thanks to the dedication of a small group of passionate such as Bruno Vitale, Roberto Ferrante and Paolo Bongianni often accompanied by Andrea Giurato, Francesco Mariani, Gualtiero Gianni, Mauro Ciampi and Tommaso Sciannella. Again Vitale and Sandro Momigliano open numerous new single pitches on the "Mura di Amarcord" and other new sectors, starting a work of recovery and restructuring of the first old routes. In the short space of a couple of decades, in fact, hundreds of sport itineraries were in fact flourishing in every corner of Sperlonga, and at the same time the older ones were gradually modified, re-equipped and made safer. We have therefore gone from the old rusty nails and rotten cords to the handmade bolts first and then to the 8 mm steel fixings, then I0 mm, and finally to the current stainless steel fixings and resinated bolts.
The main protagonist of the research, opening, maintenance and rearrangement of new and old itineraries and related access paths, is Bruno Vitale, still very active in opening and maintenance, with few other friends, of the many itineraries in the area, always paying maximum attention to respect for pre-existing routes, the surrounding environment and above all safety rules on the equipment used and selected lines. We recall in this regard the "green box" at Ristoro "Da Guido", the climbers meeting point. The box is used to raise funds for the replacement of deteriorated material and to maintain in good conditions the routes.
The crag is typically winter with the wall generally facing south. The best months to climb are from October to May, but in the warmer season it is possible to combine a few hours of afternoon climbing to a day spent on the beautiful St. Agostino beach.
