Aosta: the gateway to Italy
From the snowy peaks of the Pennine Alps, the city of Aosta ** (Aosta Valley, Italy), sleepy in the heart of the valley to which it gives its name, resembles a door whose hinges are mountains. From the north, the French and Swiss crags and glaciers they try to look out over the green plain of the Po.
They seem to want to feel the humid tingling of the **perennial mists of northern Italy ** and smell the aroma of Italian salumi: prosciutti, motsett... The southern lands smell of wine, mountain cheese, and aromatic herbs.
But in front of them, their Italian brothers, with the Gran Paradiso in the lead, guard, with their peaks like battlements, the Mediterranean fountain of desire, bustling piazzales and trattorie . But every wall has a door, and every stubborn, a weak point.
The result of this incomplete embrace between the Frankish and Germanic world with the Mediterranean, of two Europes that are as often friends as they are enemies, is the aosta valley , and its capital, the gate and lock that have guarded the border between northern and southern Europe for 1,994 years.
Mont Blanc seen from the Italian side
The incessant traffic of trucks that circulate towards the tunnel that crosses the Mont Blanc It is the clearest sign that Aosta, in the 21st century, preserves the road idiosyncrasy, focused on the road it guards, which was conferred on it by its Roman founders.
However, Augustus's legions were not the first to take advantage of Aosta's value as an essential passageway for **anyone venturing across the Alps**. The Salasian tribe, like many others, lived in anonymity until they ran into the Roman war machine on their way.
Aosta begins, like many of our cities, with a victory, that of Rome , about a town that passes into oblivion and of which only its defeat against the legions of the Eternal City is remembered, who to make matters worse, called the new city that they built on the conquered territory with the name of the recently oppressed town: Augusta Praetoria Salassorum.
Once the “gate” was in the hands of Rome, the city became the triumphal arch through which the most illustrious figures in European history would parade. Pepin the Short passed through Aosta on his way to conquer the Kingdom of the Lombards , as well as most of the Germanic emperors who headed to Rome to gird themselves with the much desired imperial crown from the hands of the Pope.
The city became the triumphal arch through which the most illustrious characters in European history would parade
The Swiss mercenaries who made their fortunes in the Italian Wars, and the French counts and kings harassing the wealthy Spanish Habsburg duchies in Italy, taking with it the lights of the Renaissance, and carrying with it Protestantism.
Every door worth its salt should open from both sides, and Aosta has always remained open to influences coming from the back of Mont Blanc . And this has not always been accepted.
In the 1930s, Benito Mussolini undertook the 'Italianization' of the valley; Il Duce's desire was to control, not only militarily and politically, but ideologically and supranationally, one of the country's weak points. Any strategist knows that the walls falter at their gates, and Aosta, with the arrival of fascism, remained closed for the first time in its history.
Fortunately, those times have passed. The ancient decumanus of the Roman city, today the Via Jean-Baptiste de Tillier , bustles with life under the light of street lamps and franchise windows. Nothing would distinguish it from a walk through Milan, Turin or Vienna were it not for the fact that the footprints of millions of human feet coming from one side of the Alps and the other are marked on the black cobblestones of what was for centuries one of the most important communication routes in Europe.
Piazza Chanoux, in Via Jean-Baptiste de Tillier
Behind the cobblestone sidewalks they rise tall neoclassical baroque and neoclassical palazzi with a severe Swiss imprint, but with the cheerful pastel tones that the people of Italy like. From time to time, gray medieval towers they refer us to Burgundy and Provence.
In the evenings, on the other hand, Aosta is undoubtedly Italian. The terraces boil at aperitif time , and wafts the scent of the famous cheeses of the valley: the soft Séras, the fresh Réblec... All of them washed down with the famous Aosta wines, whose microclimate allows the grape to grow in the heart of the Alps.
After appeasing the appetite, Aosta offers us a wide cultural offer that walks hand in hand with its archaeological wealth. Theatrical performances and concerts, especially in summer, are daily. The voices of the tenors resound among the stones of the theater as they did in the time of Hadrian, and even today Oedipus continues to lament between the ashen columns of the Roman Theatre, silhouetted against the imposing massif of the Gran Combin, which acts as a backdrop.
The Roman Theater and the imposing Gran Combin massif
In winter, opera and outdoor concerts give way to seasonal sports . While the snow reigns, from Aosta itself you can hear the continuous screeching of the cable cars and chairlifts that depart from the very outskirts of the city towards the stations that are distributed on the slopes of the mountains, while the clatter of ski boots resonates among the squares.
Cervinia, Champoluc, Courmayeur. .. The wooded slopes and high altitudes attract thousands of visitors to this winter sports paradise . But while bustle reigns on the slopes, in Aosta it smells like a fireplace and an après-ski break between cups of the best Italian chocolate mixed with Swiss milk.
Can you imagine a city where the best of French pastry meets its Italian namesake ? It exists, and it is Aosta.
But paradise was never easily attainable. Getting to the valley was, until well into the 20th century, a challenge for many walkers and travellers. the mountain passes that surround him were feared and respected for centuries. In all of them, menhirs, temples and churches were erected that tried to placate the winter storms and give hope to the walkers.
Cervinia, a paradise for winter sports
The most famous are the steps of the Small and Great Saint Bernard . It was in the latter that the monks who took care of the hospice since time immemorial had to breed a resistant and docile breed of dog as well as brave that knew how to find lost travelers in the fog and blizzards.
The monks, aware of the needs of the survivor , hung from the dog's collar a barrel filled with alpine herbal liquor. The door of Italy cost the lives of many who did not have the fortune to meet a Saint Bernard dog.
Today, the always lit Medieval and Roman towers of Aosta serve as a guide for the traveler that comes down from the mountains. The Romanesque bell tower of La Coqueta stands out among all Church of Sant'Orso . The façade of the temple is a good example of the imprint in Aosta of the Germanic taste for polychromy.
The Bella Napoli trattoria offers that piece of the Mediterranean
But the square that opens between the church and the bell tower is Italian, and except for the temperature and the bright colors of the Sant'Orso façade, that could well be Lazio. Two hundred steps later, we are presented with the symbol of Aosta; the Praetorian Gate.
Practical as the Romans were, and lovers of clear and concise prose, did not hesitate to provide the Puerta de Italia with a skeleton in good condition . The Porta Pretoria presides over the wall of Aosta, impassable during the centuries of invasions, perennial, always ready to offer refuge to the traveler and peace to the wanderer.
In my case, I'm looking for a snack. And luckily for the bucolic millennial who writes these lines, it still resists among the alleys of Aosta a piece of the cheapest Italy , away from the ski resort prices that prevail in the city.
I want pizza, and the Bella Napoli trattoria gives me that piece of the Mediterranean necessary to continue my way to the south, between aromas of chocolate, crepes and waffles that remind me that, although I have just entered Italy, I am still in the north.
The charming church of Sant'Orso