The Winter Wonderland of Valnontey

In the region of Valle d'Aosta, in northern Italy, there is a lovely village called Valnontey. We went there after our visit to Torino. It was snowing as we drove up there, and the scene was truly a winter wonderland: powdery white snow resting gently on all the tree branches, dramatic mountains with snow-capped peaks, car slipping despite chains on the tires.



We went for a walk after checking into our hotel, even though it was getting dark. The trail looked like this:



It stopped snowing that evening, and in the morning we saw this:



It's so peaceful here.



This Alpine valley is known for its great cross-country skiing trails, although some of them were blocked off due to avalanches.



It was my first try at cross-country skiing. It's fun and a great workout -- really gets your heart pounding. We paused to rest occasionally.



Although it was in the low 30s, we quickly got warm and found we needed to remove our hats and outer jackets. A fleece was sufficient.



We've now visited all but two of Italy's twenty regions (analagous to states in the US). Regions visited include Valle d'Aosta, Piemonte, Lombardia, Liguria, Trentino-Alto Adige, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Marche, Umbria, Lazio, Abruzzo, Molise, Campania, Puglia, Basilicata, Calabria, and Sicily. The regions that remain are Sardinia (an island just south of Corsica) and Friuli-Venezia Giulia (in the northeastern corner of Italy, next to Slovenia). Stay tuned to find out if we make it to those places!