La Rete

La Rete is a deep rock dive beyond Capo Vaticano, off the Grotticelle beach, which is interrupted halfway by a line of emerging rocks. An underwater reef rises from the Grotticelle seabed, the secca del Monaco, locally called Smalidittu, probably for the number of nets the rock has torn from fishermen. One of these submerged mountains is called La Rete for that reason.

The top of the shoal lies at 38 m (125 ft). Its walls fall for about twenty metres onto a sandy bottom and are fairly bare, with no gorgonians but many red ascidians. In return there is an exaggerated number of slipper lobsters, some of them large.

The shoal is surrounded by other, deeper shoals standing on the sloping sandy bottom. They form wide cracks, which large groupers use as lairs, and submerged arches. It is rated advanced, with great visibility.