The best traffic-free bike rides around Saint-Nicolas

Beautiful with road bike

Ancient connecting road that runs halfway up the Aosta plain, already used in pre-Roman and then Roman times to cross the valley. Today it is a quiet secondary road, ideal for cycling away from traffic, among terraced vineyards, small villages and open views of the valley floor.

The Mont Fallère Refuge, at 2,385 m, is located in the valley between Mont Fallère and Monte Rosso di Vertosan. It offers 50 beds in rooms with bathrooms, and has a restaurant with typical cuisine. Open in summer, it can be reached on foot or by mountain bike.

Good gravel path, you can do it with a MTB or Gravel bike

Many lovingly designed animal figures

splendid walk with exceptional landscape views.

Vetan, a hamlet in the municipality of Saint Pierre, is located on the northern slope of the Aosta Valley in the upper part, at an altitude of 1,700 meters. Step by step, curiosity will guide visitors on a treasure hunt among wooden statues and mountain scents. Most of the works (around 100/120) were created by the sculptor from the Aosta Valley, and owner of the refuge, Siro Viérin.

History The castle stands in the Lalex area, on a promontory overlooking the Aosta plain above the state road to Mont Blanc, just beyond the crossroads for Cogne. Built in 1710 by Giovanni Francesco Ferrod of Arvier on the remains of a strong house from 1242, after various changes of ownership it was purchased in 1869 by the King of Italy Vittorio Emanuele II, who renovated it and used it as a residence during his hunting trips in the Aosta Valley. The royal castle of Sarre, which became part of His Majesty's private heritage, then became the headquarters used by the king of Italy for his expeditions in the valleys of Cogne, Rhêmes and Valsavarenche. To host the first king of Italy, the residence underwent some modifications, including the raising of the tower and the construction of a new stable. Inside, the rooms were completely renovated and modernized. The conservator of the Royal Palace of Milan was specifically entrusted with the furnishings, which he arranged by transferring the furnishings from other royal residences. Vittorio Emanuele's successor, Umberto I (1844-1900), also assigned the Alpine castle to uses linked to hunting. In the last years of his reign, Umberto I paid particular attention to the residence of Sarre, whose internal renovation he promoted. The works carried out on that occasion include the important decorative campaigns of the monumental environments, decorated with ibex and chamois trophies. The castle was inhabited as a holiday by Queen Maria José even in the years following the monarchy. In 1989 the Valle d´Aosta Region purchased the complex to restore it. The castle, which appears as a longitudinal body with a square tower in the centre, can be considered a museum of the Savoy presence in the Aosta Valley. Visit The visit itinerary unfolds on three floors: the ground floor is set up as a museum and introduces a guided tour of the upper floors; some rooms are dedicated to the hunting theme and illustrate the territory, the management methods and the technical specificities of real hunts. the first floor, which still retains the furnishings and the appearance it took on in the second half of the 19th century, recalls the residential dimension of the Umbertine phase of the castle; the rooms are presented, with some exceptions, with the furniture documented by the 1890 inventory and with the textile furnishings described by the same inventory and reproduced on the basis of some original samples preserved in the State Archives of Turin. on the second floor, the exhibition presents a chronological setting linked to the members of the Savoy dynasty who lived in the castle from the beginning of the twentieth century to the post-World War II period.