Saint-Pierre - Morgex / San Carlo Pass - La Thuille
Once Aosta has been passed, driving towards the high Valley, after 8km besides the
castle of Sarre (see itinerary) you will meet Saint-Pierre, famous for its two
castles one dating back to the 11th-13th centuries and heavily restored, today seat
of the Regional Museum of Natural Sciences (open to the public from April to September);
the other one Sarriod de la Tour was recently restored but can be seen only from the
outside .
As if straight out of a fairy tale, the castle of Saint-Pierre is completely
unlike any other in the valley.
Taken together with the church directly below, with its
beautiful Romanesque bell-tower, it forms a very picturesque whole. Since 1975, it has
been the home of a Natural History Museum.
The museum is divided in nine halls, where
the environment of Valle d'Aosta is shown to the visitor in its different aspects:
mineralogy, geology, climate and glaciers, osteologic collection of Gran Paradiso
National Park (ibexes), local flora and vegetation (woods, shrubs, meadows, etc…),
reconstruction of four typical Valle d'Aosta environments; birds, large and small mammals
and insects.
In the village of Saint-Pierre you can also visit the "Pain de Coucou" regional center
for handicraft and typical products and “La Grolla”, a wood carving center.
Following
the main road you reach Morgex where there are the highest vineyards in Europe for the
production of the tasty white wine "Blanc de Morgex". In the area some remains of
medieval castles or towers can also be seen.
From Morgex on the left you can take the road leading to the San Carlo Pass (1960m).
You can stop at the hotel Genzianella and take the track just beyond the hotel and
after a 5 minutes walk you can enjoy a spectacular view of the Mont Blanc and its chain.
The road through the San Carlo Pass leads to La Thuile, a popular summer and winter
resort, starting point of many excursions to the Ruitor glacier, the Ruitor waterfalls
and some wonderful mountain lakes.
The road continues across the Little Saint Bernard
Pass to France; this pass has always been used first by Gauls then by Romans as an easy
way of communication. Just on the border you can see the remains of a prehistoric cromlech,
a 44 stone ellipse that dates back to the Bronze Age and indicates a sacred meeting point.
The other historical point in the area is represented by the Little Saint Bernard Hospice,
founded in the 11th century by Saint Bernard, repeatedly destroyed by the wars or the fire
and rebuilt, it was then abandoned during the 2nd World War. It was then rebuilt in 1993.
On the first floor you can visit the Museum of the history of the Pass, of the area and of
the French Savoy region. (open in July and August)
Just beside the border there is the "Chanousia" botanic garden, founded in 1879 and
recently re-opened (open to the public during the summer season). You can admire nearly
1600 different plant species and visit a little museum.
