Cogne Culture

Cogne is a working alpine village that has had to reinvent itself once already, and it knows it.

After the mine

The closure in 1979 is still the reference point. Families here were miners for generations, the museum and the guided visits to Colonna are run partly by people who worked underground, and the account they give of it is neither nostalgic nor bitter.

Living in a park

The whole commune lies inside a national park, which means rules about building, grazing, dogs, drones and where you may walk. Residents are generally proud of the park and occasionally exasperated by it, and both come out in conversation. The wardens are local people, which keeps the argument civil.

Lace

Bobbin lace has been made here since the seventeenth century, traditionally by women during the long winters while the men were underground or on the pastures, and it is still worked and taught in the village today.

Patois

The Franco-Provencal patois of the valley is strong here, and Cogne's variety is distinctive enough that people from the main valley notice it; it has its own dictionary and its own small body of written verse.

Food

Mountain cooking built on fontina, rye bread, cured meat and the seupa of bread, cheese and broth; the valley's own dish is a thick soup and nothing here is light.

Winter as the main season

Unusually for an Italian mountain village, Cogne's identity is at least as much cross-country skiing and ice climbing as downhill, which draws a different and quieter clientele.