Day55 Aosta-Châtillon – “Who put this hill here?”

The day just started off poorly. When I was putting on my brand new shoes, the pull tab on the back broke. Clearly, a workmanship issue, I intend to write to LaSportiva – but I don’t hold out hope for much of a resolution.

Aosta is a nice town. I kind of wanted to stay and look around some more but after our usual breakfast which included fresh goods from the bakery, we had to head out of town. We shot an extra long (but sorrowfully not extra good) video just to let you guys experience walking out of a Roman/Medieval town.

Morning Update Day55

Shortly after this video we shot another (shorter but no better) on the Roman Bridge

Ok…enough tourism. We had a long day ahead and a tough one. We’re still in the Alps and today’s journey was about split in ups and downs. But the total elevation combined with the 17.5mi was hard on legs that had already been beaten up by an alpine descent. It didn’t help that it was warm and humid.

For most of the day we were on the south side of the valley. This meant we were on the dryer, sunnier and more fertile side of the Aosta valley. The mountains around us took on a dryer, more west-coast USA look with every step. The hills were spotted with personal orchards of apple, pear, plum, kiwi as well as vineyards. Add to that a couple of long horned goats and you have the flora and fauna of the day.

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The small villages we passed through were not notable but were often filled with interesting or quirky artwork/architecture.

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At the end of the day we checked into our B&B and had our first struggle with Italian. Clearly I need to learn a bit more just to be cover the basics of a pilgrim check-in. Google Translate came to the rescue and we all, our host, Allison and I, all made ourselves understood.

Tonight we’ll be on our own at a local trattoria, so let’s hold off judgement for a bit.

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Dinner over. It was OK. Portions were huge but meh. Best part was a nice bottle of Barbera and a side of grilled spinach. However for dinner I was invited to try an after dinner drink. This is an Alpine liquore called Genepy. The flavoring is made from a local alpine flower and it has a herbal scent. Really interesting.

Did I mention the wind tunnel? Our B&B is situated such that the afternoon wind whips through a small patio. Our clothes dried in a jiffy…BONUS! Funny the things that can make a pilgrim happy.