Aosta - To the Alps. Romans and Castles. Aosta Valley.

Romans captured Aosta from the Gauls in about 25 BCE, and made Aosta into a legion post on the way to the Italian side of the Alps. There is a great deal of gray stone, streets in grids.

Signs are terrible. Aosta is a place on the way elsewhere, to the San Bernardino Pass, and yet try to find the ruins easily, with some idea of how much farther to go. We stop at towns like Aosta mainly for a gas-up and snack, and take a quick look around, but if sights are not well marked, take what we get and move on. The weather is looming and time passing,  and the signs, again, are awful. Aosta tourism, you are losing business.
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Aosta, Italy. Roman wall, ruin.

Aosta, Italy. The Wolf, of Romulus and Remus fame.

Then, Charlemagne (fast forward) passed through on the route Pilgrims used from more northern Europe to the Vatican. Read this fine description at ://www.initaly.com/regions/valdsta/aosta.htm/. Peasants, crusaders, royalty, all funneling through.

Aosta, on the way to the Grand San Bernardino Pass. FN 1

First, see the castles and vineyards, and terraced other things growing, on the way to Aosta and out the other side.

Terraced vineyards, Aosta Valley, Italy

Fenis Castle, Aosta Valley, Italy

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Some castles along the way are identifiable by their silhouettes.  This one, Fenis, like Verres, were feudal military outposts, but also offered luxury to the higher-ups.

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 The Bard Castle, Aosta Valley, Italy

The Bard Castle as a site dates from the 11th Century, perhaps parts earlier.  The Savoys occupied it in the 13th Century, and its site has housed a fortress since the first century - Romans set up there. See ://www.regione.vda.it/turismo/cultura/castelli/forte_di_bard_e.asp/  Austrians also holed up there until Napoleon broke through its defenses, and then the entire castle was dismantled.  What we see now is a reproduction from the 19th Century, the castle then was decommissioned, and is now a museum complex.

D'Ael Bridge (segment), and mountaintop Montmayer castle, Aosta Valley, Italy

Above the D'Ael Bridge is a small tower castle, the Montmayer, by the Valgrisenche valley. Think broody. This could be Ussel's Castle - both lone towers, but the Ussel is a rectangle, and I do not recall seeing a rectangle.

Verres Castle, Aosta Valley, Northern Italy

The castle at Verres is 14th Century, and was not only defensive. It also offered the good life - opulence, a palace atmosphere.

Then start the climb and the switchbacks up.  You can choose the tunnel, but then you see a tunnel. There are tunnels now that whisk the motorcars as an alternative under and through, rather than switchback, peril and up and down. We avoided the long tunnels. Short ones are unavoidable - some being just a few thousand feet to a few miles, or mere roofing buttressed up, with open sides.
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FN 1  Passes.

There are two particular historic passes over the Alps, among many, with names that have become household:

1) The Grand San Bernardino Pass, here, from Aosta to Martigny, Switzerland; and
2) Hannibal's route. More lateral, from France.

The Grand San Bernardo Pass is a more north-south, from Switzerland into Italy or the other way, of course, with the monks at a hostel at the top, and the St. Bernard dogs to rescue the frozen, broken, traveler in the old days. Napoleon went this way.

The Grand San Bernardino is usually routed as from Aosta, and the Aosta Valley, as the gateway, over the  to the Swiss town of Martigny.

2) Hannibal's route; a lateral way from the French side of the Alps into Italy.

We tried to do this. But just try to get to the town of Susa from Turin on a Sunday, and soon quit. Traffic impossible, no easy through route to find. We don't often give up, but did here. Next trip, start from France. There is a dispute as to which route he did take with his elephants, some say not on current roads at all, and vast archeological treasures are to be found in the ravines elsewhere. We quit and aimed back to Aosta.and