Having already visited the Scandinavian WHS Rock art sites at Tanum and Alta we didn’t want to miss the Italian site at Valcamonica during a visit to N Italy (though we still have to visit Coa Valley in Portuagl). We found information about it somewhat lacking/muddled however. The UNESCO Web site was (as usual – why don’t they have better directions/location details!) singularly uninformative about exactly where the site was and its “link” to http://www.rupestre.net/ seemed of more use to specialists/ “rock art buffs” than to passing tourists! We eventually traced the site to an area north of Brescia concentrated around the town of Capo di Ponte.

It was clear also that there were several/numerous sites in the area so we just drove there and took our chances.

On arrival in the Capo di Ponte area the first signposts led us to a museum “The Regional Reserve of Ceto-Cimbergo-Paspardo” at Nadro. On closer investigation this appeared to be a joint venture with a tour company called Kernunos Viaggi who wanted to take/guide us (at a cost!) to various nearby locations as per the museum title.

We gave up on this and followed another sign which took us to the nearby entrance of the “Parco Archeologico Nazionale delle Incisioni Rupestri di Naquane”. We found the views of the rock art at this site adequate for our purposes – though no doubt if we had given the area a whole day then trips to other locations would have yielded some interest (but we wanted to get to the Opera at Verona that evening!)

At Naquane you can follow various short footpaths among a series of rocky outcrops and, in an hour or so, see a reasonable variety of inscriptions. Unfortunately we don’t speak Italian and the site was not well presented for speakers of other European languages – we could only buy a guide in Italian for instance.

The guide has rock art locations numbered from 1 to 103 (but many numbers are missing) – and perhaps 15/20 of these are worth spending time at – some of the numbered sites on the guide map also proved rather difficult to trace on the ground!. Ladders and platforms are provided to enable one to see awkwardly positioned carvings. Unlike the carvings at Tanum and Alta these are not highlighted by dye and, depending on the light at the time, some can be quite difficult to make out.

The Valcamonica area is said to have around 140000 carvings done over a period of 8000 years from Neolithic to Iron Age (but over 80% are Iron Age i.e. from 800BC). Those at Alta (around 5000) are estimated as having been done from 4200BC to 500 BC (or even later) and those at Tanum (around 1500) from 1800 - 500BC i.e. primarily Bronze Age.

Comparisons on such matters are invidious but we felt that the Valcamonica site was the least rewarding of the 3. It could have been so much better presented considering that they charge an entrance fee.