Valcamonica was my first stop on a very full day ticking off WHS in the Italian Alps. This valley lies just over an hour to the north of Brescia, and can be reached via a major road that passes numerous tunnels. I opted to visit the Naquane Park in Capo di Ponte, as it seemed to be the most worthwhile among the 6 locations. The park lies on a hill above the town, so you have to leave your car in the center (the closest parking is at the cemetery behind the train station) and walk-up. The path is signposted. It's a climb of about 15 minutes.

Of course, I was the only visitor at the gate. The park distinguishes itself among Italian attractions as it has long opening hours all through the year. It's only closed on Mondays, but otherwise, open each day from 8.30 a.m. into the late afternoon. I don't know how they handle it if there's a lot of snow - the path up and through the park would be too slippery I guess. And they would have to clear the snow from the rocks to keep the drawings visible. There's an entrance fee of 4 EUR, and I was welcomed with a leaflet in English and explanations about which route to take to see the major rock drawings.

The most impressive ones are the numbers 50 (right at the beginning) and 1 (the biggest and earliest discovered). The Camunni appear to have been obsessed by deer with elaborate antlers, men with giant penises and shovels. At least these are the main objects they carved into the rocks. The 'shovels' (spades) are a recurring theme among other rock art sites, however, their meaning is not clear.

Since Solivagant's visit as described below, the site has improved in explanations. Each of the main groups of drawings now has an information panel, with text in both Italian and English and sketches of the drawings so you know what to look for. To make it even easier, in the top right corners of each panel there is a 'map' of the particular rock, with the drawings marked with red dots.

The drawings are very clearly visible on rocks 1 and 50, but much less so on other rocks. For example, rocks number 70 and 73 are said to display a god and houses, but I did not see anything. A couple of the rocks are also disturbed by footprints made by modern humans with shoes. I don't know when that happened, but they seemed very recent to me.