The Colma di Craveggia is an alp in a panoramic position high above the Vigezzo Valley, an easy walk from the Piana di Vigezzo along a gently sloping path.

There is no lovelier scenery in the Ossola: Monte Rosa dominates the surrounding mountains, and the play of colours, Alpine vegetation, rocks and baite (the characteristic mountain houses) scattered on the slopes of the pastures is enchanting.

Apart from its scenic beauty, the Colma has the largest “collection” of rock engravings in the whole of the Vigezzo Valley, with cup marks and cruciform engravings of different sizes.

Cup marks are small round depressions carved into a rock surface, sometimes connected by channels (or “gutters”). Their significance is not yet clear and they are still being studied, though there are a number of theories that they are associated with ancient religious cults. In the dialect of the valley the engraved boulders, which are often found in high, exposed places, often struck by lightning, are called “ses d’la lesna”, lightning stones.

The cruciform engravings are connected with the spread of Christianity, but they can also be interpreted in the light of other associations with the cross symbol, especially those connected with the stars and the sun. Yet other interpretations see in them a stylised anthropomorphic symbol.