Gran Paradiso - Aosta and Turin

Roman Arch of Augustus 

Aosta is well worth visiting. We were on our way to Turin and spent the morning and early afternoon here before catching the train to Turin.

We caught the free bus from Valnontey to Cogne and then the service bus to Aosta.

Aosta is the principal city of the Aosta Valley.


The City has some fantastic Roman remains right in the heart of the town, so you can walk from the main streets into the historic parts in minutes.

Roman bridge, Pont d'Ael

Just beyond the end of the main street there is an Arch built to celebrate the return of Augustus after a victorious conquest.





Over the road there is an old bridge that once spanned the river, but it is now dry as the river has changed it's course.





















The main streets are largely pedestrianised and are lined with beautiful balconied buildings with flowers everywhere.








Archways lead to courtyards that you just have to explore.


On the Sunday 24th we caught the TGV back to Paris, then the Eurostar to London and the train to my sister-in-laws house to pick up the dogs.

They looked very happy.

The East gate to the walled city.

Gran Paradiso - Gimillan (near Cogne) Aosta

Grivola from Pta di Mompers

We caught the first free bus of the day from Valnontey to Cogne, then another up to Gimillan which is north of Cogne. Gimillan is a lovely south facing village catching the best of the sun. We followed path 3 from the top of the village through fields and then into woodland. The path climbed easily to Arpisson (2294m). This lead us towards Plan di Bessey, but we turned NE on route 2a towards an un-named col at 2780m then on a fine grassy path to col Tsa-Setze.


A large group of mountain bikers came speeding down the narrow path.

Looking NW toward Mont Blanc

From the col we went on to Pte. de Mompers 2793m, where we stopped for lunch out of the cold wind.
Path 22 lead down to a farm at la Nouvaz and then onto a dusty track past a lake with a cafe and lots of people sunbathing. We must have tooked dusty and rough!

We then had a unpleasant ascent on a ski run\track to the top of the chair lift. We walked on to Lago di Chamole to avoid the shock of busy chairlift station.

On returning to the chairlift it was being used by mountain bikers riding a down hill route to Pila. The cafe was blasting heavy rock music that came as a shock to the system afer a couple of weeks of quiet mountain passes. The view of Mont Blanc was fantastic.

Dropping into Aosta from the cable car

We took the chairlift down to Pila, a large ski resort and then the cable car down to Aosta where we walked to the bus station to catch the bus back to Cogne and then the free bus to Valnontey.