Monday 5th Jan - After looking at the map of Italy and wanting to get Liam up to some snow we chose to have a day trip to this delightful little town in northern Italy, hoping to find some snow to play in, and it was only about 2 hours by train. Aosta is a bilingual town in the Alps close to the entrance of the Mont Blanc tunnel, the major transport link of Italy to northern Europe. It has many very old roman ruins, but we didn't see any of the town! While researching the internet (what would we do without it) I discovered a cable ski lift not far from the train station that went up to Pila ski fields. When we got off the train it was easy to find, so we joined the line of people carrying skis, sleds and dressed in snow gear, not many people wearing jeans like us! Got our tickets which was only €12.00 (I had read €60.00) and hopped into a cable car that went for miles, it took 20 minutes to get up the mountain, the ride was fun on its own. Liam was so excited to see white snow every where. We came across where the kids were sledding and talked to a chap who let Liam borrow his sled. He thought it was just the best thing ever. You could hire sleds so we decided to catch the later train and for €7.00 Liam sled his little heart out. Rob & I couldn't miss a chance either. Liam is such a dare devil, it doesn't take him long to get the hang of things, then he tries all different maneuvers not caring if he crashes. I asked him what was best about sledding and his answer was - because you can go really fast, and crash without hurting yourself!
It wasn't really cold up the mountain, about 3º C and the sun was out, to wear snow gear one could have been over dressed!. There hasn't been a fall of snow in the past week so the snow wasn't fresh and quite icy and there were a few incidents of Rob and I slipping over.
It was certainly worth the trip up to this place for a inexpensive day of fun, and no churches seen!