Down into the Po

The picture above is the view back towards Aosta as we (Rupes is with me for five days) are walking down the Valle D'Aosta towards the flat lands of Lombardy. The mountains are getting smaller and the facility to fall back into French is less frequest.

The valleys are dotted with castles as this was the historic route the French took to conquer northern Italy. The valley is really narrow with the river, an autstrada, an A road and the railway all cramming into a small area. It doesn't leave much room for walkers and we had one very nasty (and very quick) 2 km walk on the SS26 along a road along a cliff face.

The first couple of nights we stayed at Aosta and got buses back but then we got the packs on and moved each night. We had a lovely agrotourismo place in Pont St Martin. 40 euros for a bedroom, bathroom and kitchen/diner and really nice people. Our favourite lunchtime meal is a pasta with pesto which all the local bar/restaurants serve accompanied by a cold beer.

The tiny village of Bard was the only way through the valley which is why the fortress below was built to finally stop the French from invading. The village has one narrow street which leads through a narow gap in the mountain. This lady was giving away drinks to pilgrims and was selling all the touristy stuff. As I'd left my stick on the bus (disaster) I tried on the pilgrim garb and tried to get a free walking stick-no luck though, 20 eu for non-pilgrim and 15 eu for a pilgrim. Never mind, it was worth a go.

This is the castle built by the Dukes of Savoy to bottle up the valley.

Just outside Ivrea we stopped for a beer at a bar which was also the bowls club so I though I should do a special feature for Liz and Mark in Neath. The pictures below show the clothing and the rules are a bit different (unless they now allow vests and running "bombs" into the other bowls) but the guys were having so much fun. The world champ plays for the village apparently. It is the Italian version of boules but I couldn't see a lot of difference. The bar owner spoke a bit of English and with our limited Italian we had a chat about the game and what we were doing. He awarded us team hats which we wore proudly although they score fairly low on the cool ratings.

We were shattered when we reached Ivrea and took the first hotel we came to. Not the best yet but that's what you have to put up with.

I struck lucky for the rest day and have booked into the Hostel and the Ivrea canoe club at 12 euro for pilgrims with a great view of the town and the river. Rupes has phoned from Milan where he is catching the plane home so I'm on my own for a bit. Heading south east now between Milan and Turin.