Italy to Santiago II Part 1: Via Domitia Day 12 Oulx - Cesana Torinese

Perché vengo a rischiare così facilmente la mia vita, quando potrei starmene tranquillamente a casa?

Lo stesso istinto che mi spinge a sfidare la morte per amare la vita, a cercare il freddo per amare il caldo, a stare da solo per amare la compagnia, a sopportare la fatica per amare il riposo, a salire una cima per il suo versante più difficile per amare il più facile…

(Why do I come here and put my life at risk, when I could stay quietly at home? It is the same instinct as drives me to challenge death in order to love life, to seek out the cold in order to love the heat, to be alone in order to love company, to bear fatigue in order to love rest, to climb a mountain peak by the most difficult route in order to love the easier way...) 

- Ernesto Lomasti, mountaineer (1959 - 1979)

A short but challenging stage, including what may be the steepest slope we have ever climbed on a Long Walk!

We began the day over coffee and croissants with our 85-year-old hostess at B&B Alba Serena in Oulx. Rossana is a lively lady with a twinkle in her eye who lives alone in a large house and offers one of her bedrooms, as well as an attic apartment, as a B&B not only to help pay the bills but to meet travellers of all kinds, and have her morning coffee in company! 

We bid her goodbye and headed through the centre of Oulx and up through the old town, continuing to climb out of the town and through the adjacent hamlet of San Marco.

Soon we were far from civilisation on a pleasant forest track with fantastic views of the snow-capped mountains ahead. We have now left behind the busy motorway and the construction sites for the rapid railway line, which curve away toward Bardonecchia and the Frejus tunnel.

The trail took us down to the floor of the valley, proceeded parallel to the highway, which we could hear but not see, and then veered steeply uphill on a dirt trail made slippery by rocks and autumn leaves. In this section of the trail I was too busy huffing and puffing and watching my step to take any photographs! There were no trail markings until we got to the top of the climb, and it was so absurdly steep we wondered whether it really was a path at all... but when we got to the top and our route levelled off, there it was: a signpost for the Via Francigena, pointing the way we had come from and the way we were going. It would have been nice to have a signpost at the bottom, too! And at several other spots previous, where there were intersections of trails with no indication which one we were supposed to take. I followed the gps track, but the gps signal is not always accurate in the mountains; a couple of times we went a few hundred metres in the wrong direction before realising and turning back! 

Resting and recovering at the top of the big climb

Pretty mushrooms

Our efforts were rewarded with a flat, easy trail along the side of the slope and beautiful views of the mountain landscape. We continued along this easy and pleasant trail to Solomiac, a largely abandoned hamlet of stone houses, and Mossieres, a slightly larger and more inhabited village, where we stopped on a bench for a picnic of cheese and crackers and fruit.

We followed the road out of Mossieres down to the highway, crossed it, and continued through an adventure park and along a trail beside the river and then along the road into Cesana Torinese. 

Arriving in the town centre, we stopped in at the tourist information office to stamp our pilgrim credentials and then sat down in a cosy café to celebrate our arrival with a beer. We got chatting with some local people at nearby tables who were curious about our route and our experiences along the way. One of them had a son who had walked the Camino de Santiago, and so he had a general idea of what it's all about! 😁

We crossed the river and walked a few hindred metres further to our accommodation. The place where pilgrims normally stay, the church-run Casa per Ferie Frassati, offers a special deal for pilgrims on foot but is currently closed: in between the summer season and the ski season, there are not many tourists around, and a lot of hotels and restaurants close so the families that run them can take some time off. We found a place that is open, though not particularly welcoming: a woman dressed in work overalls opened the door and let us in, took our details and our money and then disappeared, going back to her renovation work, or whatever she had been doing before we arrived. 

Our room at Casa per Ferie Rosaz, the only remotely affordable option in this ski resort town,  is rather more spartan than we expected for the price we paid - but to compensate, we have a balcony with an amazing view over the town and the Alps!

The view from our balcony 

Oulx - Cesana Torinese 18 km

Italy to Santiago II Part 1: Via Domitia Day 11: Exilles - Oulx

 Senza salite non ci sarebbero discese 

(What doesn't go up, can't come down)

- Anonymous 

We began to go up as soon as we left Exilles, fortified by Gabriella's amazing breakfast of toast with honey from her husband's bees and homemade carrot cake. B&B Gabriella is the perfect place to stop overnight in Exilles, with two large double rooms - ours even had a washing machine in the bathroom. We ran our things through the rapid cycle and draped them over the radiators to dry - Gabriella had turned on the heating for us softies from lower elevations, though she doesn't use it herself until later in the fall.

We followed a winding and rocky road up to the fort of Sapè, gaining 800 metres of elevation in six kilometres, passing through chestnut groves gradually blending into beech and conifers as we climbed higher.

Leaving Exilles in a light rain

Fort Sapè

At the top, we paused for a break on a bench below Forte Sapè. Then we entered the Gran Bosco di Salbertrand nature park and followed a section of the Sentiero dei Franchi, a 70 kilometre hiking trail through the mountains between Oulx and the Sacra di San Michele. It follows the route taken by Charlemagne with his troops in 773 to get around the Longobard army in the valley below, so that he could swoop down on them from above and take them by surprise at Chiusa di San Michele. This route offers a "wilder" and more challenging alternative to the Via Francigena route that we have been walking over the past few days, at a higher elevation - for experienced hikers with adequate gear! 

There's snow in them thar hills!

We walked the easier terminal section of the Sentiero dei Franchi into Oulx. This section of the trail offers a good opportunity to view the two faces of the Susa Valley: look one way, up the mountain slope, and all you see is pristine pine forest. Look the other way, down into the valley, and you see the motorway, and the sprawling construction sites where the new rapid railway line is being built. We could hear the loud clanging of heavy-duty machinery as we walked through what would otherwise have been a silent forest. We passed above another site which appeared to be a vast treatment facility for gravel, perhaps generated in the digging of the tunnels. 

The narrow trail clung to the side of the hill before descending into Gad, a picturesque little village of stone houses, and joining a wider road leading past a shopping centre and into Oulx. B&B Alba Serena is on the outskirts of the town, so we stopped to check in and take a rest before heading into the town centre. 

The newer, lower part of Oulx is where all the businesses are - where we could find the tourist information office, a pharmacy and a takeout pizza place. Above it is the old town, a single street lined with 17th-century homes, culminating in the church at the top of the town.

B&B Alba Serena 

Exilles - Oulx 18 km

+1000 metre elevation gain