Aosta Valley Italy

D70/Italy 3

Travelled: 112km  ai La Thuile, Pre St Didier lookout, Courmayeur, Morgex , Pont d’Ael, Sarre Castle and Aosta

Stay: wild spot next to river near Cerisey on the road towards Grand St Bernard Pass (Switzerland) 45.8197, 7.190

So it was time to tackle the Aosta Valley, although we have travelled this road in 2014, we plan to explore a few different places this time.

We reached La Thuile at 8:30am and after paying €0.50c/hr parking we went for a bit of a wonder.

The village is the last bastion of Italy before the border with France and sits in a nice green valley surrounded by the mountain ranges of Mont Blanc, Grand Assaly and Rutor. It has a lovely and quaint atmosphere with the timber and stone buildings decorated with colourful flowers.

We enjoyed an Italian breakfast of coffee, hot chocolate and croissants filled with jam  and chocolate… 

Mmmm….Can even buy cannabis products at the bar..

Just before the spa town of Pre St Didier we stopped at the suspended lookout built in 2013. It offers amazing views of the Mont Blanc ranges and the valley, as well as the town. 

We drove up to Courmayeur, where the tunnel and cable car go to Chamonix, France. We contemplated wether to head back into France but decided to follow our original plan and stay in Italy. 

So we back tracked and stopped in Morgex. We managed to time our visit for the lunch 12-2pm free parking just next to the church and so happens a restaurant.

Due to the lack of people we presume it’s not big on the tourist route. We had a short stroll and then settled in for a beer and delicious pizza that were huge. 

Morgex white wine region

Lots of castles dotted along the valley.

Not far from here we ventured off the main road to have a look at a Roman aqueduct, Pont D’Ael that was built in 3BC. We paid €5 each. We walked over the bridge along where the water originally ran  from its original source 2.5km away then down to the Aymavilles quarries to help cut the marble.

We then entered the bridge to walk through the center which had a glass floor (originally wooden) so we could see the unique feature of the empty chambers below that kept the structure light but strong.

 We contemplated a walk to maybe see some other parts of the channels but the weather was way too hot. Instead we returned to the valley and went to visit Sarre Castle €8pp. Standing on a promontory it was built in 1710 on top of the ruins of a fortress (1242).  

In 1869 it was purchased by the King of Italy (part of the Savoy sovereignty) and refurbished into a hunting lodge as can be seen by the significant decor of the reception rooms that have been adorned with hundreds of trophies of ibex and chamois. 

The castle was bought by the Aosta regional authority in 1989. Unfortunately the tour was in Italian but we admired the rooms never the less and read our English pamphlets.

Originally we had thought of venturing further down the valley but with the temperature dial hitting 42°c our enthusiasm had declined considerably. So we did a quick shop in Aosta and then once again headed up into the mountain towards Grand St Bernard Pass. We found a spot on Park4Night near Cerisey that looked very tempting next to a river and when we arrived we even got some shade. Although we are only 700m higher at 1400m alt, the temperature dropped to 32°c and we cooled down in the very refreshing mountain stream. Perfect.