Because clouds* are a sign of movement and flowing.

Clouds, which are part of the water cycle, that cycle we learn at school and whose underground dimension is sometimes brought to light by cavers.Clouds, which are part of the water cycle, that cycle we learn at school and whose underground dimension is sometimes brought to light by cavers.

Clouds, who like those who attend Speleopolis, come together and then disperse.

Clouds, like comics word text or stories of research and exploration, like time as it passes, forms that deceive, the fleeting nature of memory. "The clouds" of Aristophanes were a metaphor for mockery, but time told us that they concealed wisdom. “Nebbia '93” (nebbia means fog), the first meeting in Casola Valsenio, had in the logo the image of a caver with his head in a cloud. The text read: "Where the eye does not see, look with imagination!" After a quarter of a century, we return to the deep meanings behind Speleopolis. We recover the curiosity and imagination that are at the center of the same speleology we began with a quarter of a century ago.

Compared to 25 years ago, we now have fast and immediate access to information, to caving news. While this means that we can read the schedule of Casola2018 before coming, we cannot know in advance what we will learn about ourselves. The event will reveal the importance and hidden meanings of narration, the sharing of data, and the creation of memories. We expect to be amazed, to combine in new ways existing possibilities and to grab people’s attention, to engage with each other and the material in important and non-trivial ways. Casola2018 will be a crossroads, a port, a landing place. We will take stock of what has happened and is happening in the caving and speleology world and what it means to communicate today with such rapidity and frequency. We will examine the tools that allow us to creatively showcase the underground world and the maps that crystallize and indicate underground pathways. We will also talk about our passion for caving, outside of the established program, perhaps at the Speleobar, and think about the future that remains to be lived or remember the past and its explorations and people. Having “our head among the clouds” (woolgathering) will allow us to see beyond the usual borders ...

*Nuvole in italian.