A receptacle handling apparatus comprising: a filling carousel rotating about a first axis and provided with a plurality of peripherally-mounted filling units advanced along a circular path (q) for filling respective receptacles with a pourable product during advancement of the receptacles themselves along a path and about said first axis from a receiving station to a transfer station along an arc-shaped portion of the path; and a capping carousel rotating about a second axis, parallel to the first axis, and provided with a plurality of peripherally-mounted capping units configured to advance along a circular capping unit path and receiving respective filled receptacles at an insertion station and adapted to cap said receptacles during advancement of the receptacles themselves about said second axis from the insertion station to a release station; wherein said transfer station of said filling carousel and said insertion station of said capping carousel are spaced apart; characterized in that said capping carousel is located immediately downstream of said filling carousel and comprises a plurality of peripherally-mounted gripping units, each having at least one outwardly extensible gripping arm assembly including a gripper arm configured to selectively and radially move between a retracted configuration and an extracted configuration, in which said gripping arm assembly cooperates with said filling carousel to transfer a respective filled receptacle along a non-circular arc-shaped sub-portion of path from the transfer station of the filling carousel, directly to the insertion station of the capping carousel, without any further transfer device between the filling carousel and the capping carousel, and in that each gripping unit comprises an actuation unit which controls a respective gripping arm assembly and includes a first actuation device adapted to radially move the gripper arm assembly between the retracted configuration and the extracted configuration with respect to the axis of the capping carousel. a filling carousel rotating about a first axis and provided with a plurality of peripherally-mounted filling units advanced along a circular path (q) for filling respective receptacles with a pourable product during advancement of the receptacles themselves along a path and about said first axis from a receiving station to a transfer station along an arc-shaped portion of the path; and a capping carousel rotating about a second axis, parallel to the first axis, and provided with a plurality of peripherally-mounted capping units configured to advance along a circular capping unit path and receiving respective filled receptacles at an insertion station and adapted to cap said receptacles during advancement of the receptacles themselves about said second axis from the insertion station to a release station; wherein said transfer station of said filling carousel and said insertion station of said capping carousel are spaced apart; characterized in that said capping carousel is located immediately downstream of said filling carousel and comprises a plurality of peripherally-mounted gripping units, each having at least one outwardly extensible gripping arm assembly including a gripper arm configured to selectively and radially move between a retracted configuration and an extracted configuration, in which said gripping arm assembly cooperates with said filling carousel to transfer a respective filled receptacle along a non-circular arc-shaped sub-portion of path from the transfer station of the filling carousel, directly to the insertion station of the capping carousel, without any further transfer device between the filling carousel and the capping carousel, and in that each gripping unit comprises an actuation unit which controls a respective gripping arm assembly and includes a first actuation device adapted to radially move the gripper arm assembly between the retracted configuration and the extracted configuration with respect to the axis of the capping carousel.