So, when we awoke in Chamonix, we had all sorts of plans for getting up to high places. We had been chased by rainstorms during the entire trip, though, and they caught up with us in Chamonix, closing the gondola that would have taken us up the mountain. So we said to ourselves..."wasn't there a tunnel over there that leads to Italy?...maybe we could check it out..."
We hopped in the car, stopping to admire the glaciers along the way, paid the toll and entered the tunnel (which was over 10km long and went right through the mountain), and upon coming out, were in a completely new world of deep canyons, snow-capped peaks, waterfalls, and Italian road signs (gibberish for us Americans unstudied in anything Italian). This day was not planned into the trip, and so we were completely unprepared to be in Italy. I was lucky to have remembered how to say "thank you," and that was the only Italian word we had to rely on during our few hours there! But despite our lack of preparation, for me, it was the best day of the trip. In my opinion, the Italian side of Mont Blanc is more striking and also less developed (a wonderful combination). We had the valley and all the quaint alpine villages to ourselves that day. And it was soooooo Italian! I loved it and want to go back right away!
The village of Avise, Italy. We saw this from across a gorge, so we turned the car around and started exploring.
Many of the houses we saw that day had heavy slate roofs.
The town cemetary. Click on the photo and check out the sign above the door of the building. The sign above the door is not in Italian. At the borders of European countries, it is common for languages to blend together a bit. For example, there are French speaking areas of Switzerland. Mark recognized the sign as French, although there were a couple of oddities in the french that he thought might be archaic. Here's a loose translation: "Passer-by, whoever you may be, rather than thinking of this world, be mindful that we must die and depart."
Avise
Avise
The residents had clothes drying (in the rain!) all over the place. We also found little vegetable gardens tucked into surprising spaces.
Beautiful, beautiful...
Avise
We found this restaurant by the side of the road. The restaurant is on the ground floor, and the family lives above. It was past the normal lunchtime, but they graciously served us anyway.
This was my favorite meal of the entire trip. I finally understand what good pasta tastes like! MmmmmMMMM!!! I bought a little bag of dried pasta to take home (a type called maloreddus), and it was amazing. I am rationing out the rest until I can find a supplier...
Looking back towards Mont Blanc, from the Italian side.
Only the Alps...
This is the same glacier (look between the peaks) that we saw from the French side (see previous post), it's just the other side of it, spilling into Italy. It's massive!
Wildflowers of the Aosta Valley, Italy
2 comments:
I may have a pasta dealer for you :) There's a guy who drives to Lyon from Italy (Turin?) to sell pasta at the market at Montplaisir-Lumière one day a week. I've never benn, but it's right near my friend Anna's. We can add it to our list of things to do!
The photos are amazing, but I'm sure for you experiencing the real thing was even better.
AMAZING pictures! Thank you so much for taking the time to document all of this. It's so fun to see such amazing places, for FREE!
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