Road to Home 2023 Day 62: Échevennoz - Aosta

The trick of successful walking is knowing when to stop.

 - Bill Bryson, Notes from a Small Island

When to stop walking? It's always hard to say, unless you reach the ocean at a finis terrae like Fisterra in Spain or Santa Maria di Leuca at the bottom of the heel of Italy, where you simply can't walk any further. But the Via Francigena is an exceptionally long walk... approximately 2000 kilometres from Canterbury to Rome, 3000 including the Via Francigena of the South from Rome to Santa Maria di Leuca. It makes sense to divide it into chunks. I planned to be away for a maximum of two months, and it has taken me exactly two months - from April 16th to June 16th - to walk from Calais to Aosta, the first large, well-connected city on the Via Francigena in Italy. The weather is warming up, and will soon be intolerably hot for walking anywhere but in the Alps. So Aosta seemed like the perfect place to stop for now, and resume my walk again once the summer heat is behind us.

Audrey, Jannis and I prepared for our last day of walking together with a breakfast at the café/trattoria in Échevennoz consisting of fresh bread with homemade raspberry jam and the biggest mound of butter I have ever seen! Fresh, locally made butter, and it was delicious!

We walked gradually downhill on a cool forest path beside a bubbling brook, wishing every day on the Via Francigena could be like this! 

Typical roof tiles of the Aosta valley

At Gignod we came to a fork in the road: a higher path through the forest led directly to Aosta, but we followed the Via Francigena signs out of the forest and down into the village. 

It might have been a better idea to stay on the high path to Aosta, as the lower route took us mainly along paved roads, and we soon missed the cool and shady woods. But there were plenty of fountains for drinking and refreshing ourselves with a splash of cold water, as well as a number of cherry trees to provide snacks along the way! The valley soon became more urban, though the Via Francigena took us up the hillside into the vineyards and orchards to avoid the main road before descending steeply into the city of Aosta.

Quite tired and with aching thighs from two days of relentless downhill slopes, we went straight to our accommodations in the convent in Aosta, which we later realised was right around the corner from the main square and the Roman amphitheatre! Church-owned accommodations tend to be very central, as well as very clean and comfortable, and I have been choosing them wherever they are available. 

Today's accommodations: Focolare San Giuseppe / Foyer Saint Joseph 

We had a mission to accomplish in Aosta: the soles on Audrey's Speedcross trail runners were worn thin and smooth from walking across France and Switzerland, and she wanted to buy a new pair - exactly the same style and size, so she wouldn't have to worry about getting used to them. While Jannis' heavy leather hiking boots had been perfect for getting through the Jura mountains and over the Alps, but she wanted to try a lighter trail runner type shoe for walking on flatter ground in the warmer temperatures of Italy. Aosta has a large selection of sporting goods stores, and we easily found one that sold a great variety of trail runners, including the Salomon Speedcross. My two walking companions each bought a pair, and the next day, after they had gone, I decided to try them and bought myself a pair, too! 

The next day... because I stayed in Aosta for two nights. Though it is only a three-hour drive from my home, I had never been there before, and my first impressions of the city were so favourable I wanted to stay and explore some more. I arrived on a Friday afternoon, and so my husband was able to join me on Saturday morning and spend the weekend. The nuns allowed me to keep the double room I had shared with Jannis the night before, and even let us use one of their private parking spots! The convent is just around the corner from the main square,  Piazza Chanoux, and there is a big concert coming up tonight in the square: a Pink Floyd cover band. I can hear the sound check taking place from my room, as I write!

Piazza Chanoux

The Roman cryptoportico

Collegiata di Santi Pietro e Orso

Cloister at the Collegiata di Santi Pietro e Orso

The arch of Augustus

Échevennoz - Aosta 14 km