Jeff and Serena Italy & Spain 2017: Val Camonica & Petroglyphs

Travel & Arrival

We're comfortable with train stations and vaporetto now so it was easy to get on our way today.

Serena isn't using her Italian a lot but it is still helpful now and again. It's also nice because we can communicate with people a little more and the smiles are satisfying when it seems everyone reaches an understanding.

Today is our first driving experience in Italy and it seems the drivers here are not quite so predictable as in Spain. In particular they often come to a complete stop on highway on ramps rather than getting up to speed and merging. We didn't have GPS in this car but we've become much more competent with maps.me and that got us out of Brescia and on the main road north toward Capo di Ponte. The countryside is beautiful. We drove through spring-green fields bordered by high snow-capped rocky mountains. We passed Lake Iseo but the view of that and the countryside kept coming and going as we passed through tunnels - A LOT of VERY LONG tunnels (1-1.5+ miles each).

Finding our B&B in Capo di Ponte was a little more challenging. We ended up on some crazy narrow streets and despite signs, maps.me and the map on the B&B website we didn't know where we were going. We got into the general vicinity and Serena asked the first person she saw and we were about 75' away. It's an eclectic old building. Some parts were once a fortress - so there are bordering rock walls and a guard tower (doesn't really look like one anymore). Some parts were a silk mill. And part seems to be just a house. They have a lot of unruly garden too.

We're here for three nights and it was past lunch time so today we simply went out to find some food and drive around getting familiar with where we are. Capo di Ponte is a very small village - not even a grocery store and no dining to speak of though we did find a sandwich shop. Since we were offered use of the kitchen we went to the next village (Breno) and did some grocery shopping so we could make dinner (bread, cheese, salami, broccoli, caprese salad and wine) and not have to go out and drive and come back on those narrow streets in the dark. Between lunch and grocery shopping we visited the local archaeology museum.

The prevalence of petroglyphs is why we have come to Val Camonica. The museum talked about those and other aspects of local archaeology. There's a lot of both. In fact, this area has the largest collection of prehistoric petroglyphs in the world. The collection of petroglyphs was recognized by UNESCO in 1979 and at that time 140,000 figures and symbols were included. Since then the number has increased to well over 200,000.

Sunday, May 14th

Breakfast with the other guests (German & Italian) and then we went straight out to Parque Nazionale Naquane. It's a lovely sunny morning and the forest is beautiful. Good map and easy walk to the rocks with the most carvings or the best viewing conditions. Immediately we recognized deer and warriors. There were horses, a burial scene (so we were told), houses, labyrinths, hunters and so much more. It was amazing. The carvings are generally on glacially polished sandstone. Most of what we were seeing ranged from 0-2500 BCE.

Drove to Breno again to find some lunch and ended up having a lovely leisurely lunch - 2 hour and 3 courses. We were outside under an awning watching the weather change from sunny to cloudy and eventually to light sprinkles. We went back to the B&B and napped during the afternoon showers. We called Serena's mom for Mother's Day then took a walk outside our neighborhood on a regional village-to-village path. Then home again to basically the same light dinner we made for ourselves yesterday.

Monday, May 15th

After breakfast (alone because we are the only guests at the moment) we drove across the valley to the village of Nadro to see another area of petroglyphs. They were more difficult to discern here because the rocks had not been cleaned with acid and the angle of the light was less favorable. Still we did see some nice carvings and it was a nice walk in a beautiful forest. We thought a lot about all our hiking meetup.com friends but probably this is too far to travel for a meet up.

Afterwards we drove further up the slope of the valley through the villages of Cimbergo and Pespardo. Then it was a steep downhill back to the main road that runs the length of the valley.

This morning Marzia (our hostess) mentioned a large wine shop in the next village and WOW. Basically a BevMo though not quite as large. 10-ish wines on tap and huge selection in bottles (we filled Serena's water bottle with sfuso and bought a bottle) + beer and liquor. Shop keeper spoke very little English but we managed to ask him what wine he recommended and ask about the local "Balanaders" beer that Jeff had and enjoyed. Tino was suddenly on the phone and we ended up with an appointment in 40 minutes to visit the brewery. First we confirmed we knew where to go, then we found a gas station with a bar attached and shared a sandwich. We got back to the brewery right on time and knocked. Alessandro - the brewer - invited us in. He spoke very good English and we explained and he was showing us around (very small and only locally distributed). We were on our first tasting when his boss called to tell him we would be coming. Through our conversation we had already found out that he wasn't expecting us which made his welcome all that much more fantastic. Very nice man and tasty beer. Tastings are NOT something they do regularly but there were glasses and he just grabbed bottles out of their storage cooler.

After relaxing for a bit at our B&B we drove to the neighborhood petroglyph site. It was not as easy to discern all the petroglyphs but still wonderful to be outdoors. Back at the B&B we met Shelley from Sydney who is also here for the petroglyphs. Because we are more familiar with the area and already had plans to go out we all went together to get pizza and brought it back. We also are packing tonight for traveling tomorrow.

Tuesday, May 16th

Our time in Val Camonica has been very relaxed and significantly different than the rest of our trip since we are NOT in a city environment. Today we leave and drive back to Brescia to return our car and take a train to Milan.


A view of our village - Capo di Ponte - from across the valley.

Granite peaks are on both sides of Val Camonica (Camonica Valley)

Church of Maria & Elisabetta which is the landmark for finding our B&B. We park to the right of the church and the driveway for CasaVisnenza B&B is where this photo was taken from.

Entrance "hall" for Casa Visnenza. Beyond the archway is a large open-air dining area and the wing where the owners live. On the right of this front area is the entrance to the three floors with the rental rooms (all with en suite bath).