Valle D'Aosta Under Snow

Valle D'Aosta seems to be another world especially if you visit it in winter. The winter in all other towns, around the valley, seems to be a spring, but you enter in this particular valley then and... you are in the kingdom of Santa Claus.

So, here, in the first photo, we are in an interesting place: you can see the narrow passage leading you to Valle D'Aosta. And you can see a normal Italian winter here. But when you continue for 20-30 km-s, you can see a completely different situation. Give a look at the photos of our journey in the valley.

No, such a snowy weather we found when we reached the destination could not offer "normal" kinds of recreation of this period. It was so dangerous that the roads were closed the day after we left it. But we were really fascinated to see this incredible world of snow and to enjoy every minute of the time we passed there.

  

Many photos I took from the car, so they are not very clear, but I think, the sensations of the "parallel" life are expressed better with these not very professional photos.

A part of the way was a very narrow one-way road between the trees and I expected that a Bad Wolf will go out from the next curve, but it seems we were the only living beings in that place at that moment...  

The temperature changed from minus to plus next day and the magic transformed the snow in the rain. Imagine our shoes that were not ready for these changes. Mountains of the snow around us and rivers of water that fall on you and flow under the feet... and grey grey grey colors of everything.

Next morning donated us splendid views ...and icy roads. It was incredible, but it was difficult to even make some steps from the house. The ice did not allow us to walk. 

But in any case, it was an unforgettable adventure.

You can see how is the winter on the Amalfitan coast, too

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We’d love to hear your comments and experiences. Feel free to leave a comment or ask a question, below, in the comment section.

Turin - Real Venaria

Turin is the right place for you if you like to visit real residences. One of them is situated not too far from the center of Turin and there are different ways to arrive there. We came with the car and easily found a place for it. I have to say you that the parking area I've seen was not too big, but I don't know if there were other areas there. It was a cold working day and we did not see too much visitors even if there were some interesting expositions in the palace (I'll tell you about it in the next post).

You can see on the map how big it the territory of this residence and it's really difficult to visit all it if you do not dedicate all the day for it. But we had only two or three hours this time and could visit only the central palace where were all the expositions. So, all photos you can see in this post are from our walk around the central palace of Venaria.

The square of the arms was not all its life so large and spacious. It was divided into two parts before. The tickets you can purchase on the right of it if you look at my photo. If you have one of the prepaid cards, you have to take a ticket the same. So, don't think you can go to the palace with your prepaid card. Go and take the ticket!

If you want to begin your visit from the palace, you have to enter the door on your left (photo). If not, you can go right around the building and enjoy the view of the gardens.

We wanted to give a look at the gardens and, unfortunately, we did not understand that it was not possible to enter the palace from the other side. But... we were fortunate enough: or because the staff did not understand our intentions or because we had a decisive appearance, I don't know. In any case, we did not go back to enter the "normal" entrance door and could visit all the exhibitions of the moment in that limited time we had. 

We began with that enormous terrace where you can see all the mountains. Under it, there was a place where the royal boot (gondola) was situated. And they had fish there. 

There are many modern sculptures around the palace. They are not only in the square and near the building, you can see them in the gardens, too. Some of them are artificial trees, but the metal tree is not too different from the normal tree in winter. 

The gardens were interesting anyway. They were not green, there were even reconstruction works at that moment, but if you will come in late spring or in summer, the meadows will be covered with all kinds of flowers, I think.

I'll tell you more about the insides of the palace in my next posts. 

Now, I want only to tell you about the little "fast food" shops just outside of the Venaria. It was simply great. Honestly, I thought we will eat usual crap there. We had not the time to choose a good place and to wait for service at that moment. But we were fortunate once more: they served us quickly and the food was really good and tasty.

You can read about another touristic attraction in this blog: Ancient Egypt in Turin, too

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We’d love to hear your comments and experiences. Feel free to leave a comment or ask a question, below, in the comment section.