19km maybe 200m up and 300m down
We did not actually stay in Verres last night even with a shrine to St Roche on the main street, but in a small village Issogne, on the other side of the river with one small shop and a plethora of little alleys. The day dawn’s bright and blue and it is supposed not to rain. The mountains are still white!
We get bread and a jar of jam from the alimentaire next to the bar and start by 8.30. Back across the river , a day of road rail and river crossings as we walk down the valley in the autonomous region of Aosta with its black and red bipartite flag. It has a lion sticking it’s tongue out on it’s coat of arms!
The day I’d perfect for walking and most remove fleeces and trouser bottoms. We pass two more presses and go through the village of Arnad famed for it’s pig products, it takes us a while to work this out as the notice boards suggest it is famous for lard! Which seems a bit odd.
Passing down the valley we get to a bar in Hône jokes about being home abound. But as well as biera we get a few bits of pizza and a load of the local dark bread. Recipe from a notice board after includes figs raisins walnuts and chestnuts. 50:50 wheat and rye flours. It was good.
The bridge between Hône and Bard gives views of the Forte di Bard high above it was built just after the Battle of Marengo in a Napoleonic Brutalist style (that’s made up but it ought to be true) and never saw fighting. It now has a funicular that was probably not part of the original design. We climb up through the town to the church below the fort and then descend down by a fast flowing canal to the old Roman road still in recognisable condition.
The very straight road between this point and Pont St Martin is tedious and we finally settle for sandwiches below the old bridge the original Roman one built in the 1stC CE and the best preserved in northern Italy.
Marching swiftly onwards we find the huge spatious hostel atop the town hall and registry office. There is a wedding tonight but in a new modern block there may not be the same traditions of the wedding night as in Caceres on the Via de la Plata.