How I Learned to Like Skiing – 7 Simple Rules

  
Left: (2023) Passo del Tonale, Italy - Contrabanddieri Run with fog in the valley
Center: (2018) Alta Badia, Italy - Rifugio Santa Croce - La Crusc
Right: (2019) Canazei, Italy - Sella Pass 


1. Learn to say no. If you don’t want to ski a “hard” run. Don’t do it. If you don’t feel like skiing one day, don’t. If a group of friends is going to tackle a ski run you don’t like or feel like skiing at the time, skip it.

2. Stop when you aren’t having fun. The trick here is to realize when you aren’t having fun. For example, for me it’s when visibility goes way down and I can’t see the slope. Some skiers don’t mind that. I do. So, I stop. If I’m tired, getting sloppy, and am worried about falling, I stop.

3. Enjoy the other stuff around skiing: rifugio, people, environment. For me, planning something before or after skiing helps break up the day. For example, ski in the morning and then an afternoon walk. Or vice versa. One day, we tried skimo and loved it. Other ideas: ski just a few hours and then explore a nearby village. Spend a long leisurely lunch or break in a rifugio. Bring a book.

4. Breathe. I found that when heading down a slope that was a little tricky, I would hold my breath. A thoughtful big inhale and exhale before tackling the slope helps me.

5. Expect nonlinearity. Weather, visibility, snow, how your body feels, group dynamics, skis, etc. change in time. One day, I ski great. The next day, horribly. Conditions? Me? I don’t know for sure but I accept it.

6. Experience and practice does make you better. Find a slope that you like and get comfortable there. Ski it a dozen times to build confidence.

7. Don’t worry about what others think about you. That applies to all endeavors.


  

Left: (2019) Madonna di Campiglio, Italy - Punto panoramico Grosté
Center: (2019) Selva, Italy - Sassolungo
Right: (2023) Passo del Tonale, Italy - skimo in Valbiolo

   

Left: (2022) Seefeld in Tirol, Austria - cross country ski tracks

Center: (2019) Cogne, Italy - cross country ski tracks
Right: (2019) Seefeld in Tirol, Austria - slope

A Visit to Parco Naquane to See Paleolithic and Neolithic Rock Drawings in the Val Camonica

Overview ~ Rock 1 ~ Rock 23 ~ Rock 35 ~ Rock 44 ~ Rock 50 ~ General park photos

   

  

Top row: Rock carvings in Val Camonica, Italy: rock 50, rock 1 - warriors on horses, rock 35 - running priest, rock 50 - warrior.

Bottom row: View over Capo di Ponte toward Concarena peak. Entrance of the Naquane Park.

Overview

We’ve been up and down this valley half a dozen times and never had the opportunity to stop until today to see the petroglyphs. The what!? The petroglyphs or rock drawings of Valcamonica, recognized by UNESCO in 1979. It was Italy’s first recognized site.

All the rock drawings taken together represents rock carvings/art going back to the 8th-6th millennium BC. Pretty impressive.

Today, we stopped in just one of many parks in the region and spent a few hours. We are at Capo di Ponte, in the Province of Brescia, Italy. Specifically, we are just on the edge of the village and uphill in the Parco nazionale delle incisioni rupestri di Naquane.

This park was created in 1955 by the Archaeological Superintendence of Lombardy, extends over 35 hectares on hills east of the Oglio river, ranging in altitude from 400 to 600 meters above sea-level. There are many paths within the park that allow you to get up close to the engravings.

Some resources to help:

• Ample parking here: location.
• Google Street View of the site.
• The park is ordered by “rocks”. Think of each rock like a huge canvas. (Who knows what other canvases lie beneath the moss and debris?)
• Up close the “great” rock: Naquane Great Rock, Valcamonica, virtual tour entry (europreart.net)
• We spent about 1.5 hours here and didn’t see it all! (We only show a couple of the “rocks” here.) We had planned to see the nearby Rock art Natural reserve of Ceto, Cimbergo and Paspardo as well but a lunch appointment beckoned us to leave. We’ll be back!
• If you are looking for a fun lunch spot, try Osteria Concarena in the cute village of Cerveno.

About Val Camonica:

• Val Camonica one of the largest valleys of the central Alps, in eastern Lombardy, Italy. We travel up and down the valley going from Bergamo to Ponte di Legno / Passo del Tonale (for all sorts of outdoor activities). It’s a slightly less efficient timewise to get to Merano. (See A Week in Merano, Italy – Hiking.) Finally, if you haven’t seen the Presena glacier covered in summer to protect it, you don’t know what sad is. (See Presena Glacier – A summer visit to the covered glacier.)
• Not only are the rock drawings inscribed in UNESCO, but the whole valley is also a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve. This valley is happening. Many of our “local” wines come from the valley.
• Val Camonica is derived from the Latin Vallis Camunnorum, "Valley of the Camunni."
• The Camuni or Camunni were an ancient population located in Val Camonica during the Iron Age (1st millennium BC); the Latin name Camunni was attributed to them by the authors of the 1st century.

Rock 1: The Great Rock

This rock has more than two thousand figures engraved over its surface; it is not easy to see them all, even less to remember them. The most ancient figures, very few, date back to the recent phases of the Neolithic, six thousand years ago. The great majority of the others were engraved during the end of the Bronze Age and above all (over 80%) throughout the Iron Age, during the 1st millennium BC.

  

Rock 1, the Great Rock in Parco Naquane, Val Camonica: animals and hunters (left), hunter with long spear (center), Sector I (right).

  
Rock 1: Deer and mystery shovel (left), labyrinth (center), Sector G (right).

  

Rock 1 information boards and view of rock 1 and viewing boardwalk.

  

Views of rock 1 in Parco Naquane, Val Camonia (left), with cat (center), with mystery shovel carvings (right). 

Rock 23: “Four-wheeled Wagon”

The wagon scene on rock 23 was carved with a double perspective: a depiction device commonly used in the ancient times to make all the parts of an object visible: the wagon itself is represented from above while the four radiant wheels and the two horses are seen from a lateral point of view.

 

Rock 23: wagon carving (left) and information board (right).

Rock 35: “The Running Priest” and “Cammunian Village”.

The so-called "running priest" is lively figure that looks like it could have been done in our times. It is a male figure wearing a head gear with back bent feathers. The figure raises one of his arms while the other rests on his hip and his legs bent in a way that may suggest a running or a dance. This figure dates to the Iron Age.

   

Rock 35: Communian village (left and center) and running priest (right).

 

Left: boardwalk around rock 35 and view south down Val Camonica (left) and information board (right).

Rock 44: Halberd-Axes

We didn’t find them, but include a photo from that rock.

 

Rock 44: Information board and carvings.

Rock 50: Prayers, knights, "the big warrior", inscriptions.

The first rock you come upon after entering the park. Depending on the light, you might not think there is anything there but look carefully to see looms, labyrinth, and the mysterious shovels.

The shovel engravings, whose first appearance dates back to the Middle-Late Bronze Age (16th-13th centuries BC), have been object of several interpretations, Among the most interesting ones it is worth mentioning the resemblance with razors discovered among grave goods in cremation burials, which is also associated with the habit of collecting the ashes of the departed. Bronze shovels have been also found in women graves both of the Golasecca Celts and of the palaeo-Venetic regions, where they are supposed to be linked to domestic activities. Finally, we must indicate the votive function of shovel groups, interpreted as symbolic representations of votive offerings. Therefore, the shovel in Valle Camonica rock art seems to have both a male and female value, and also suggests a different use of the object according to the figurative context where it is placed.

  
   

Rock 50: Big warrior (left), prayers (center), boardwalk around rock (right).

  

Rock 50: Winter light on rock carvings (left), viewing platform (center), fractured surface (right).

  

Rock 50: warriors (left) and prayers (right).

  

Rock 50: information boards.

General Park photos

   

Entrance to the park (left and center) and history of park (right).

  

House on the climb to the park (left), moss and rock carving (center), view over Val Camonica from the park (right).

Travelmarx Music Picks - Winter 2024 - Harbor Mind

Composite image of 25 albums featured in the Travelmarx Winter 2024 playlist.

Our first post of the new year and it’s a playlist (Spotify link). Some thoughts about this playlist:

• Melody Nelson appears in two songs, the 13th Ward Social Club’s “Melody Nelson”, and Mick Harvey’s “Melody Nelson”. The name refers to the concept album “Histoire de Melody Nelson”, by French songwriter Serge Gainsbourg. Released in 1971, the album’s story follows the romance between the middle-aged narrator and a 15-year-old girl named Melody Nelson.
• The track "Social Roll” is from the second album “Social Limbo” from the Italian group Opez. (Really loving their music and they are Italian!) The album is a collection of eleven dreamy and haunting acoustic instruments. We like the idea of “Social Roll” as when you dive into the world of social media, you get rolled (taken advantage of). That’s our interpretation, not Opez’s.
• The harbor mind.
• This term describes a mindset or way of thinking that is influenced by the rhythms and transience of coastal life. This concept is often associated with the early Greeks, who lived near the sea.
• While this theme doesn’t appear directly in the playlist, it influenced us when selecting the tracks. Specifically, we had just finished the book “How to Be: Life Lessons from the Early Greeks” by Adam Nicolson where one of the central ideas is the harbor mind.
• In October, we had a chance to visit of the cities (Miletus, Priene, Ephesus) that are discussed in Nicolson’s book. (See 18 Days in Turkey, Postcards from Istanbul, Let’s Do the Pamukkale).
• What an emotional ode to Kate Bush by Pone. We include the track "Breathing - ICU". Read more.

13th Ward Social Club - "Melody Nelson"
Assaf Spector - Gitkin - "The Last Chuck"
Aze - "Sudoku"
BALTHVS - "All is One"
Benjamin Clementine – "Difference"

Beth Gibbons Rustin Man - "Romance"
Emiliana Torrini The Colorist Orchestra - "Racing the Storm"
Fabio Viscogliosi - "Camera"
Harry Paradise - "Slow Walk Mango Promenade"
Howe Gelb - "Running Behind"

Jay-Jay Johanson - "Cheetah"
Jeb Loy Nichols - "Big Trouble Comes in Through a Small Door"
Kid Local - "A Grand Love Theme"
Mick Harvey - "The Ballad of Melody Nelson"
Mieke Miami - "Cry Baby Cry"

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - "Breathless"
Nicolas Godin - "Team Vulcan"
Opez - "Social Roll"
Pone - "Breathing - ICU"
Quantic Alice Russell - "Travelling Song"

Spain - "Before It All Went Wrong"
The Good The Bad and The Queen - "History Song"
The Handsome Family - "Far from Any Road"
The Movers - "Give Five or More"
The Walkmen - "Red Moon"