Aosta Valley ski guide

The Aosta Valley is a geographical contradiction that turns into a strength. It is the smallest region in Italy by area, yet the most completely alpine. Every single municipality in the valley lies above 1,000 metres, a record in the whole of Italy, and over the centuries this has shaped a tough community, proud of its autonomy and with a cultural identity unlike any other in the country.

The Aosta Valley is an autonomous region with special status, bilingual in Italian and French, with an even older language underneath: Franco-Provençal, still spoken in the side valleys as the living language of a centuries-old culture.

Mont Blanc and Courmayeur

This extraordinary setting is home to the highest mountains in Europe. Mont Blanc, at 4,808 metres, towers over Courmayeur, always visible, always imposing.

The Skyway Monte Bianco, the cable car that climbs from the hamlet of Entrèves to Punta Helbronner at 3,466 metres, is one of the most spectacular aerial rides in the world: cabins that rotate through 360 degrees as they rise past sheer rock walls, while the view opens onto an ocean of snowy peaks.

Down below, Courmayeur is the jewel of the Aosta Valley: a medieval village with an intact old centre, luxury boutiques and a high-level ski area on the slopes of the Grandes Jorasses and Mont Chétif. Experienced mountaineers can also reach the Vallée Blanche from the Aiguille du Midi on the French side.

Cervinia and the Matterhorn

On the other side of the region, Cervinia faces the Matterhorn (Cervino), the black-and-white triangle of rock that has become the world’s symbol of the mountains.

The Matterhorn Ski Paradise links Cervinia with Valtournenche below and, across the Swiss border, with Zermatt. The cross-border ski pass lets you ski in two countries and reach 3,883 metres at the Klein Matterhorn, the highest covered ski station in Europe, with snow practically guaranteed all year round.

Border passes

The Aosta Valley is also a land of mountain passes across borders. La Thuile is linked to La Rosière in France near the Little St Bernard Pass, creating an Italian-French ski area where you ski in two countries on a single ski pass.

The Great St Bernard, whose hospice is guarded by the famous rescue dogs, separates the valley from Switzerland, while the Little St Bernard divides Courmayeur from French Savoie.

Beyond the slopes

Away from the slopes, the Aosta Valley has other treasures.

• Gran Paradiso, the only 4,000-metre peak entirely in Italy, rises in the heart of the national park of the same name, the oldest in Italy, where ibex and chamois graze unbothered by people.
• Aosta has a Roman forum, a triumphal arch and remains of Augustan walls that rival those of any more famous Italian city.
• Forte di Bard, restored and turned into a museum, commands the gorge that Napoleon once tried to slip through in secret to avoid its defences.

And in the restaurants of the small side valleys, the Aosta Valley DOC wines (Fumin, Petit Rouge, Prié Blanc) tell the story of heroic vineyards grown at seemingly impossible altitudes with true Aosta Valley tenacity. There is nowhere else like it in Italy.