Photo Tiia Monto, CC BY-SA 3.0
Valle d'Aosta · Aosta Valley
Things to see in Aosta
In Aosta the atlas lists 31 historic places: 11 archaeological sites, 8 fortresses and towers, 6 museums, 5 castles and 1 historic villa or palace.
Of these, 5 list opening hours.
Don’t miss: MegaMuseo, megalithic site and museum in Aosta, Italy.
- 31historic places
- 33,093inhabitants
- 583 maltitude
The town
Aosta (French: Aoste) is the capital of Italian autonomous region of Aosta Valley. The town is in a small valley with houses going up the slopes of the surrounding mountains.
The Roman colony of Augusta Praetoria Salassorum was founded by the general Marcus Terentius Varro, who conquered it from the Salassi tribe in 25 BC. The colony housed 3,000 retired veterans. After 11 BC Augusta Praetoria became the capital of the Alpes Graies ("Grey Alps") province of the Roman Empire. Its position, at the confluence of two rivers, at the end of the Great and the Little St Bernard passes, gave it considerable military importance, and its layout was that of a Roman military camp.
Text from Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA, abridged · Wikivoyage
31 places
Archaeological sites 11
Fortresses and towers 8
Museums 6
Castles 5
Villas and palaces 1
Getting there
By plane: the nearest commercial airport is Turin TRN, with flights across Europe and within Italy. Aosta can also be reached from the Milan / Bergamo airports, and from Geneva GVA via the Mont Blanc Tunnel. Aosta's own airport handles private aviation but is too small and hemmed in by mountains for regular flights.
By train: Trains run hourly to Ivrea, 80 mins. These connect immediately with trains to Turin Porta Susa and may be shown on timetables and displays as through trains, but usually it's a change. For Milan and elsewhere in Italy, take the train towards Turin but change at Chivasso. Aosta is now the terminus of the line up the valley - trains no longer run further up to Pré-Saint-Didier. Aosta railway station is just south of town centre.
By bus: three Savda buses per day link Aosta with Turin Porta Susa and Porta Nuova, taking two hours. Two of them extend west to Pré-Saint-Didier and Courmayeur. In addition, in the morning there's a bus from Martigny in Switzerland to Aosta and in the evening one back to Martigny. That bus only drives from Monday to Friday.
By car: The main road up the valley is Autoroute A5 (toll) from Turin, with a crosslink to A4 from Milan. It bypasses town to the south and continues west up the valley (mostly in tunnel) to Pré-Saint-Didier (turn-off for Little St Bernard pass, summer only, via La Thuile to Bourg-Saint-Maurice in France) and Courmayeur, where it enters the Mont Blanc tunnel to Chamonix in France.
Text from Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA, abridged · Wikivoyage
What to see, according to Wikivoyage
Via Sant' Anselmo is Aosta's pleasant traffic-free main street, stretching from the Augustus Arch and river bridge at its east end, through the great Roman gateway of Porta Praetoria midway, Town Hall in Piazza Emile Chanoux, to end in the west at Piazza della Repubblica. All the main sights are along or just off this stretch.
Collegiata dei Santi Pietro e Orso at 14 Via Sant'Orso is a charming church, part of a still-functioning monastery. It dates to 10th century but is mostly 15th. There are notable frescoes and Gothic choir stalls, and a Romanesque cloister fronted by a later loggia.
Basilica di San Lorenzo at 12 Via Sant'Orso is now an art space.
Roman amphitheatre, Via Porta Praetoria. Roman ruins are dotted all over town.
Text from Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA, abridged · Wikivoyage · Underlined names link to our own pages.