There's plenty of Alta Via in Italy, the name simply being "high trail". The Aosta valley, at the top northwest corner of Italy, has two of them.
The Aosta valley is a long, often narrow valley stretching from south-east, where it borders Piedmont to north-west, with the Mont Blanc massif and the border with France. There are secondary valleys running north and south, creating a fish-bone like structure. The side valleys typically climb up toward the mountain range that encloses them, each valley with a river and a road running its length, ending at the foot of the mountain range. Each valley typically has one larger town (large being relative), and many smaller villages and hamlets, some of which are at the valley floor and some higher up. Higher still there are farms, where cows are taken to graze in summer.
The Alta Via 1 traverses the north side of the valley, just below the Monte Rose and Cervinia range. The Alta Via 2 runs along the south side of the valley, through the Gran Paradiso national park. Together they create a high altitude circle around the valley.
The AV1 and AV2 have similar profiles, with lengthy ascents and descents: from the valley floor, up into a mountain pass, and down into the next valley. This means that each day there's at least 1000 meters of descent and/or ascent. The AV1 is ~180km with a total of ~14,000m ascents/descents, divided over 17 daily stages. The AV2 is ~148km with a total of ~10,000m ascents/descents, divided over 14 stages.
Nature: The hike takes you from valley floor through forests into open alpine meadows and up to the exposed rocky areas. Each section has its own typical flora and fauna. There are slight differences in the views, but you are always in an Alpine setting. So if you are looking for variety - this is not the trail for you. If you are in love with Alpine views, like me - then every day is a delight.
Food: most restaurants and huts will serve traditional local food (Cucina typica) with some Italian stars thrown in. This means a lot of cheese. Like - a lot. This is not the place to be vegan. It's also not the place to keep Kosher or Halal, as the more often than not, the meat is pork.
The most ubiquitous local dish is Polenta. If you are thinking of the creamy buttery corn dish you might know from restaurants around the world, think again. Here you get the simple version, made with coarse grains and water. You would typically find several version on the menu, differing in what is served with them (cheese, mushrooms or meat).
The cheese is usually Fontina, local hard cheese which is eaten both on its own and melted on dishes.
Sleep: The route is based on sleeping in huts (when in the mountains) and small hotels (down in the valleys) as wild camping is largely forbidden in these areas (check out the local rules before you head out). The huts are an important part of the mountain culture and experience, and are a great source for local knowledge.
When booking a night in a hut, the assumption is that you will want dinner and breakfast (half-pension), though you can pay for just the bed. Dinner is served for everyone at the same time usually between six thirty and seven thirty, with a fixed menu: sometimes antipasti in the form of soup, then risotto or pasta dish, then meat (beef or sometimes deer stow, pork roast) with polenta, and then simple dessert. Food is abundant and delicious, and you can always ask for more. Vegetables are very rare, fresh ones even more so.
Breakfast in the huts is typically limited: bread (not necessarily fresh), butter, jams, coffee/tea.
Lunch can be eaten in the huts as well, if you arrive early or in the rare cases where there is a hut along the way, or in town, if you pass through one at the right time. You can buy packed lunches from the hut (ask them the night before). It will typically include 1 or 2 sandwiches with ham and/or cheese, a fruit or a snack. I prefer buying bread, cheese, dry sausage, fruits and vegetables in the stores in the valleys. It's a great opportunity to sample the local products.
I bring a lightweight plastic container and use it to store perishable. Knowing that I'm not likely to get fresh fruits and vegetables in the huts, I give them much of the space - cherry tomatoes are my preferred vegetables, as they don't need to be cut or sliced open so they last longer. For fruits, I find that the European brown pear is perfect: it's hardy while tasty and it lasts a few days, even after cutting into it. I also buy small packets of butter if I manage to find them. I try to buy fresh bread every time I walk by a store - they often sell half a loaf. Just remember that in many places, the grocery stores (if one exists) close around lunch time for a long break, so plan accordingly.
Water: being Israeli, I feel nervous heading out without 3-4 litters of water each day. There's no need for that here. Almost every town, village and farm you will walk past will have a water trough. You can also fill water from the streams along the way, just be aware of the risk of contamination from cows. Some people carry water purification tablets for that.
Water troughs can be found both in the villages (look for them in the main village square) and in the mountains. They are here as a free service for travellers, and it's always great to find one, particularly on a hot day. Feel free to fill up your water supply, sprinkle cold water on your face or just drink directly from the tap: the water's clear and cool. I carry a small lightweight cup with me just for this.
Maps: You can find 1:25,000 maps covering the trail in any of the tourist information centers around the valley. Just tell them you are looking for the maps that cover the AV1 or the AV2, and they will be able to tell you which maps you need. It's 5 euro per map, and there are many of them (7 for the AV1). I purchased the entire set for the AV1 and did not use it, but I like having them as backup. Note that they stop at the border with Piemonte, and do not show the trails beyond that.
I downloaded the GPX files from the Aosta tourist website (a great resource on all things Aosta - they are also available by phone and email and are very helpful) and opened them in Outdoor Active, which I find easy to use.
The trail blaze is a yellow triangle, with the trial number in the center. This helps distinguish it from the local short-distance trails, marked with a circle. The trail marking and signage is typically good, and it seems as if they've renewed it over the Covid shutdown period.
Book: Ciceron has two books, one for each trail. I've purchased a digital copy of each, and found them useful for general understanding of the trail, but not so much for the moment-to-moment navigation. There is also a book in Italian/French with maps, but I couldn't find it in stores.
Weather: I've had incredible luck, with no rain on the trail for the entire time. Statistically, this is a very unlikely occurrence. Expect typical alps weather - anything from sunny 30+ degrees to more pleasant days, all the way to rain. doesn't matter how much sun screen I put on, I reached the darkest shade my skin can get to within 4 days. Thunderstorms, like the one I had on my second night, are also a common occurrence, and so is fog. Like everywhere else in the Alps, when in doubt, consult the hut warden - they know their area and keep track of local weather forecast (no, the weather forecast on your phone's app is not good in this places).
Public transport: being a trail that combines high altitude with villages, every few days you have a way out, if needed. The valleys are all connected to the main valley with public transport. There are several bus companies operating in the valley. Note that while increased in frequency during tourism season, it's still infrequent. Each valley has a bus line running along its main road, connecting it to a town in the main valley. Then there are buses running along the main valley itself. For those who do not speak Italian, reading the local bus timetables can be a bit confusing: it will typically have columns showing the different times, each column with a header indicating whether is valid for every day of the week, work week, work week during school time, or just weekends and holidays - so make sure you know what these words mean and that you are in the right column. Skipping a section or two by taking public transport between the valleys is possible, but note it can take up to half a day. Coming from the city, I'm used to using dedicated apps or Google maps to check location of stations as well as bus times, but note that Google Maps is not a good resource for public transport in rural areas, it seems to not know a lot of things (where bus stops are, what bus lines run where etc.)
Things I wished I knew before 1: How little-hiked this trail is. Coming from the TMB, I was expecting less people, but I was not expecting so little human presence. The first 4 days of the AV1, from Donnas to Gressoney, I was the only thru-hiker on the trail. People who don't have the time for the full trail typically start at Gressoney. I've reached the AV2 at the end of the tourist season, and was told that just one week before, the huts were completely full. I would have preferred to have a few more people on the trail and in the huts (but not too many! I like to silence and being able to take pictures without other people in the frame).
Things I wished I knew before 2: No need to book everything in advance. Not sure if this was just a coincidence, the impact of covid-19 or something else, but as a single hike, I didn't need to book things so much in advance. I probably could have made due with booking every section (valley - mountain - valley) a few days ahead. At the same time, the hotels and other lodging options in the valleys themselves are full at the height of the Italian tourism season (starting August 15), so these do need to be booked well ahead, or be prepared to pay a lot/be flexible. When I wanted a night in a hotel in Aosta, the only one available in the town itself was $250 euros a night. As a single hiker, one of the challenges is that most accommodation options in the valley are geared towards couples or families coming for a few days, so finding a single room for one night was a challenge in places that are not directly on the trail. At the same time, hotels servicing the hiking community (Hotel Suisse for example), are used to single travellers and have rooms for that. Note that a lot of the lodging options are not available on the big international booking sites, and need to be booked directly. For the huts, while there's no centralised booking system, the Aosta tourism board has a booklets with the details of all huts and shelters available to hikers. It's worth picking up a copy ahead of starting the trail.
Things I wished I knew before 3: a few more word in Italian. I knew that people are not likely to speak English, but I wasn't expecting to be so limited in my communication skills. I wasn't actually aware of how little I knew in Italian, because I can manage the very basics in other European languages. This didn't stop anyone from being extra nice to me, but I felt disconnected in a way that bugged me.
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