Aosta · Italy

When the railway arrived

In 1886 the train reached this point, and the valley ceased to be far away. Before that one came up from Ivrea by coach, on a road that in winter posed serious difficulties; afterwards one left Turin in the morning and arrived for lunch. The change worked in two directions. On one side the summer visitors began to arrive, and with them the hotels, the guides, the notion that these mountains were a place to spend a holiday. On the other, the railway made possible a far less picturesque movement: heavy goods going out, which thirty years later allowed a steelworks to be built at the foot of an alpine valley. Almost everything Aosta became in the twentieth century passed along these rails.

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How did people get here before?

By road, in a carriage or on foot, and over the passes on foot or by mule. The Great St Bernard was the main way north for two thousand years, and in winter it was crossed only out of necessity.

Who were the first visitors?

Families from Turin and Milan spending the summer in the valley, and English visitors who came for the mountains. Until then a mountain was an obstacle to be crossed; for them it became the reason for the journey, which at the time was a recent idea.

Does the line still run?

Yes. It comes up from Ivrea and ends here: Aosta is the end of the line, not a stop on the way to anywhere. It is single track and has been under modernisation for years. Otherwise it is the same idea as in 1886.

Where it is

Piazza Manzetti, 11100 Aosta · 45.7343, 7.32232 · Open in Maps

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