Bello Valle d'Aosta

I just spent the weekend up in the Italian alps and it was beautiful.

We had no classes on Friday as this trip was sponsored by our group, IES, and we left Friday morning from Milan by bus and headed north. It took probably about two hours before we were in the region of the Valle d'Aosta and went to Forte di Bard, an old military base that is up and hill. We took this round, glass elevators up three times to get to the top and explore. There were some beautiful views and the history of the fort is very interesting. It was rather old but Napoleon destroyed it when he captured the Aosta region and it was rebuilt later by those who felt it was important to have. It was converted into a museum in the 1900s.

We went into the museum which had these very odd videos at the beginning but after there were many interesting things about the mountains. However, everything was in Italian and French, no English. I was able to pick out a few things and enjoyed the mock-ups of different alp dwellings throughout history. Sadly I could not take photos in the museum.

After that we got back on the bus and headed to lunch. We were treated to a common dish of the area: venison with polenta. It was very yummy and I enjoyed it a lot. There were all these little, old Italian ladies running around serving us and they especially liked the boy at the end of our table who kept eating. It was very cute.

We got to the village of Aosta and wandered around. Sadly it started pouring rain. I lost my umbrella already in Milan so I decided then was a good time to buy a new one. Apparently I got my four euros worth a few minutes after purchasing when my umbrella caught a huge gust of wind and broke. However, we found a very cute little church on accident and saw some other nice sights.

Saturday morning was the Aosta guided tour. All of our tours on IES trips are done in Italian with translation into English after. It made it very interesting to me because I could try and pick out words and phrases that I did understand. However, it also made the tours rather long.

My favorite part of the Aosta tour was the Roman Theatre. Aosta was controlled by the Romans for a very long time and set up like a Roman town. They had an amphitheater and a theatre and a forum. Everything a good Roman town needs. The theatre is still there a lot, although the amphitheater is so gone that we didn't even go to see it. One place I was sad we did not get to was the Cathedral but it wasn't for lack of trying. We went and it turns out that there was a wedding going on that day. However, under the cathedral you can see the hidden passageways that they had in Roman towns. They were basically underground roads people would walk versus walking outside and also held meetings and functions. It was super interesting to see.

After the tour we had some lunch and then my roommate for the trip, Allie, and I observed siesta from 2-4 where everything closes and people relax. In Milan not everything closes as it is a big city, but in Aosta (which is much smaller and has a lot more families) pretty much everything was closed down.

Following siesta we headed to Aosta's archeological museum which was free for the day. We saw a special exhibit on what I think was Renaissance symbolism that was inspired by Roman artifacts (everything was again in Italian and French). Then we headed to look at the normal exhibits and were directed by a guy who obviously worked there to check out the basement. Under the building are Roman ruins that you can see. It was some sort of building and it was super interesting. Allie and I spent a good amount of time wandering around down there. We enjoyed the other parts of the exhibits, mainly artifacts from life in Aosta, before heading out. Allie wasn't feeling well and dinner was approaching so we got some gelato and people watched. There are way more families and babies and larger dogs in Aosta than in Milan. It was really interesting how many of them knew each other and we loved the little Italian ladies gathering on the street for what I assume was gossip.

Sunday was probably the best day of the whole trip. We headed out of Aosta about 9 and we went to Monte Bianco (Mont Blanc in French) which is, I'm pretty sure, the tallest mountain in the Alps. We took three gondolas (which is also a word for a type of ski lift, not just a boat) to get to the top and I took so many pictures. It was gorgeous up there. It was below 0 in Celsius which is still pretty cold for Fahrenheit. There was a small crystal museum at the top and you could also cross the border right into France. It was pretty fun.

Afterward we only took two gondolas down and hiked the last portion. It took a little over an hour, had breathtaking views, and was rather steep. I had a great time and I think that hiking Cinque Terre last weekend definitely put me in shape for this hike. I have not felt any pain yet but we'll see how that goes in the near future.

Once everybody had made it to the bottom (some people did not hike and just took all three gondolas back down) we went to a small town nearby for lunch and then headed back. We made a quick stop at a castle that is in the area which was not open but I got some lovely pictures of the outside, before we made it back to Milan.

It was great to get into the fresh mountain air and be away from the city before starting all of our classes on Monday!