Autumn in Valle d’Aosta Italy – 3 day itinerary for families

During the fall break, we spent a long weekend in the Aosta valley in northern Italy, surrounded by beautiful mountains, fall colors, and lots of history. The main attraction for us was hiking sections of the long distance Cammino Balteo trail, which is a great choice for autumn when higher elevation trails are too cold and often covered in snow. We also explored a castle and fortress, walked on ancient Roman roads, strolled through vineyards, crossed aqueducts, sampled delicious local specialties at a food festival and more. Here’s a summary of everything we did with links for more information.

Our visit was generously hosted by Valle d’Aosta Tourism, who arranged an English-speaking guide, Stefania from Guide Turistiche Valle d’Aosta, who accompanied us on our outings, making everything easier and more interesting. We loved Stefania (see her in the pic below) and would highly recommend booking her both for tours of historical sites and for hikes. Everything in this region is in Italian and French, no German and very little English. So having a guide is really helpful.

Getting to Valle d’Aosta

Aosta is located in northwest Italy, on the border of France and Switzerland.

We drove to Aosta through the St Bernard tunnel (CHF 29.60 each way). The highways in Aosta are toll roads and more expensive that you might imagine. After a couple €16 tolls for short drives, we quickly switched to the local roads (which our guide said most people do), which take a little longer but weren’t particularly crowded. But watch out for the orange speed cameras, which are everywhere!

There is train and bus service throughout the region but we didn’t use it on this trip. More info here.

Il Cammino Balteo Trail

Our main motivation for this trip was to try the Cammino Balteo, a 350km network of trails that loops around the Valle d’Aosta, as shown below. There are 23 official stages, ranging from 12 to 21 km long. Get details for each stage here. 

We did a sampler selected by guide, hiking 3 shorter sections (about 4-6 km each) that hit the highlights and were suitable for families. I adjusted the trails we did so they are connected to public transportation. See more walks and hikes suitable for families in the Aosta valley.

1. Hike from Fort Bard to Pont Saint Martin

This hike starts at the famous Fort Bard, walks on a section of the ancient Roman road, passes through old villages and vineyards and ends at the “devil’s bridge” in Pont Saint Martin, where you’ll find restaurants and a big playground with a view. 

This trail starts near the famous Fort Bard. You can either visit it now or perhaps after your hike. More about the fort later in this post.

As you approach the village of Donnas, you walk on a section of the original Roman road that cut through this valley. I really felt like we were walking through history on this part. Although this hike would be nice on your own, we enjoyed all the historical and cultural information and stories our guide provided along the way. 

The trail then leads into the vineyards (these are private, don’t wander around in them). About 100 families own and work the vineyards here using traditional methods, harvesting by hand, not sheering machines. 

Our guide is from the village Pont Saint Martin and her family owns a small vineyard there. It was so interesting to have her local perspective as we explored this area.

The path is mostly on paved roads and stone paths through villages, relatively easy walking.

She even arranged for us to visit a private wine cellar in one of the vineyards to see how they maintain old traditions.

Some of the wines produces in Aosta valley.

The hike ends at the Devil’s Bridge in Pont Saint Martin (read the legend here). You might also recognize it from Avengers: Age of Ultron.

We had pizza for lunch at New York pizza, even though the chef is Silician and makes a pretty delicious crust. There’s a great playground across the parking, which our kids appreciated.

Getting there:
There are train stations and bus stops at both ends of the hike, which makes it easy to return to your starting point. You could park in Pont Saint Martin, take a bus to Bard and walk back to your car.

Free Parking: Via Resistenza, 5, 11026 Pont-Saint-Martin AO, Italy next to library and post office.
Start: Bard bus stop (or Hone Bard train station)
End: Pont-Saint-Martin – piazza iv novembre bus stop (or Pont S. Martin train station)

2. Hike from Porossan to Roisan

This is a one way hike from Porossan to Roisan, a short section of Stage 10 of the Cammino Balteo. It traverses the side of the valley, through tall grass and forests with mountain views on both sides.

There’s a climb at the beginning of the hike, but after that it’s pretty much flat the rest of the way to Roisan.

Such beautiful views up the valley toward the St. Bernard pass.

You pass a large Roman aqueduct that looks more like a castle. You also pass through small villages and end in Roisan that has this church with the beautiful mountain backdrop.

Getting there:
Since it’s a one-way hike, you need to take public transport or a taxi back to your starting point. Bus line 6 runs along this route, going about once an hour. You can see the schedule on SVAP (official bus service website) and Moovitapp. This trail is hiking between the Porossan-Neyves stop and the Roisan – Capoluogo stop. Unfortunately, the bus stops don’t appear on Google maps so I can’t tell you exactly where the bus stops are. But they are on the main road and can’t be too hard to find.

Alternatively, you could arrange a taxi shuttle (you can search for one here) from Roisan back to your car in Porosan. Our guide arranged a shuttle for us.

3. Hike to Pont d’Ael Roman Aqueduct

Our third hike led to a wonderfully preserved Roman aqueduct built in 3BC, one of only three Roman bridges still intact in the Aosta valley. You can skip the hike and drive directly to the village where the bridge lives (GPS: 45°40’39.8″N 7°13’25.8″E, free parking).

Originally, the water flowed on top of the bridge, while people and animals used the internal passage below. For a small fee (€3/pp), you can walk through the internal passage, which has a transparent floor, very cool and totally worth it. More info.

Opening times: Apr to Sept: daily 9:00–19:00, October: Sat/Sun only 10:00-13:00 and 14:00 to 17:00 

We did a short, easy hike to the bridge, but that was only possible because our guide arranged a shuttle (see why having a guide is awesome!). But if you like to hike, our guide recommends doing the Il Cammino Balteo Stage 17 from Villeneuve to Aymavilles, which is 12.3 km (we would have done this if we had more time). It passes over the bridge about in the middle of the hike. Here are a few pictures from our section of the hike, particularly lovely in fall.

If you do the full hike, there are bus stops at the start at Villeneuve (bus line , see also on Moovitapp) and end at Aymaville (bus line 5, see also on Moovitapp). 

Tips for hiking in Aosta valley

Trail signs in Aosta valley are usually yellow and look like this. They usually list the trail number in a circle, triangle or rectangle. Unlike Switzerland, they list the distance and the time to the destination. The Cammino Balteo trail also has the white square “Balteus” sign as shown below.

The trail difficulty is indicated by a letter: T=tourist path (yellow in Switzerland), E=hiking path (red/white in Switzerland), EE=expert hiking path, EEA=equipped expert hiking path (blue/white in Switzerland). Everything we did was rated E. More info about Italian trail ratings.

Along the trail, you’ll see yellow arrows trail markers indicating the way and sometimes the number of the trail as well.

4. Fort Bard & Marche du Bard

After our hike to Pont St. Martin, we visited Fort Bard, which is an impressive complex built in the 19th century by the House of Savoy after the original fort was completely destroyed by Napoleon in 1800.

Today it has houses the Museum of the Alps and has a variety of rotating exhibitions and art galleries. We visited the prison, where my kids thought it would be funny to lock their dad up for the night.

The views from the castle down the valley are very nice, especially when you aren’t facing 40,000 French soliders trying to kill you.

There is a charming one street village leading up to the fort, which has cafes and shops.

The weekend we were visiting the fort, they were hosting the “Marché au Fort“, a food and wine event focusing on local producers. Here are a few of our favorites. Fontina is *the* cheese of Aosta valley. In fact, if it doesn’t come from Aosta, it’s not fontina. If you can find it, the alpine version is the best! I also fell in love with their bright purple Boudin sausage.

The Tegole cookies are one of the only traditional desserts of this region, made to resemble the “lose” roof tiles you’ll see all over this region. On the right, the vendor breeds a special black pig to make their sausage.

Forte di Bard
Address: 11020 Bard, Aosta Valley Italy
www.fortedibard.it
Opening times: Tu-Fri 10:00 to 18:00, Sa/Sun/Holidays until 19:00, Monday closed

5. Fenis Castle

One of the other historical jewels in Aosta valley is Fenis castle, which was used to promote the dominance of the Savoy family, not to defend against invaders. 

If you want to go inside, you have to pre-book a guided tour and unfortunately, the tours are arranged by the castle are only available in Italian. If you want a tour in English, I recommend booking our guide Stefania. 

After several generations, the Savoy family squandered their fortune and were forced to sell the castle and all the furnishings. A farmer bought the empty castle and used it to shelter his animals. Amazingly, many of the frescos survived the hard times.

One of the main problems in castle life was the extreme cold. So they had lots of fireplaces, like the enormous one we’re standing in. It was used for heating all the rooms above it as well as smoking meat because salt was scare. 

Fenis Castle
Address: Frazione, Località Chez Sapin, 1, Fénis AO, Italy
website
Opening times: Apr to Sept: 9:00 to 19:00 daily. Oct to Mar: Tu-Sun 10:00 to 13:00 and 14:00 to 17:00
Price: €7

6. Aosta city

The center of Aosta valley is the city of Aosta, the only city in this region. It’s full of beautiful buildings and fascinating ruins and mountain views.

We toured the Roman theater, which amazingly has this one iconic wall still standing. We also visited the Cryptoporticus, which are tunnels under the old forum and temples.

The center plaza has these colorful tiles and various statues, including this one of Dora Baltea representing one of the two rivers in this valley.

7. Lago Blu Cervinia

On our last afternoon, we drove up to Cervinia, hoping to get a view of the Matterhorn reflected in Lago Blu (GPS: 45°55’22.2″N 7°37’03.4″E). You can just park for free on the side of the road and the lake is just a few meters from the road.

The famous peak was mostly covered in clouds (you can almost see it in the pic below), but it was still very beautiful. We definitely want to come back in summer to hike in this area.

8. Where we stayed

We stayed at Hotel Relais du Foyer (Località Panorama, 37, 11024 Châtillon), which was conveniently located in the middle of all the activities we did. The views from our balcony were so nice.

We had a two room family suite, so the kids had their own room, bathroom and balcony. 

At dinner, I loved the starter with local meats and cheese, including Lard d’Arnad and Blu d’Aoste. While they still have a continental breakfast buffet, due to Covid, you request the items and a server brings them to you. We appreciated all the Covid precautions that help make travel still possible.

Thanks to Valle d’Aosta Tourism for hosting our visit and to our guide Stefania for all the interesting information and help with logistics. It was a trip to remember and we hope to be back soon to explore this region more!