Hône/Bard, Italy 2018 🇮🇹

Date: 1st October 2018

Travelled: 179 kms from Como to Hône/Bard. Region of Aosta, Italy.

Visited: Forte Di Bard

Stayed: Hône municipal sosta, €10 per 24h, limited services. N45.83498, E09.06071

Budget: 120 days @ €92 per day.

Our second night in Como is just as peaceful as the first. The days are getting shorter, the nights cooler and sleeping in a little becomes very easy, especially for Pam. She rouses to the sound and smell of the coffee machine doing its thing and our day is underway.

We discuss our route for today. Through the Aosta Valley into France via Mont Blanc tunnel is the easiest, but more expensive. Or go the long way via St Bernard’s Tunnel, which is less expensive but that would involve cutting across through Switzerland and buying a vignette.

Anyway we need to get going and make our way to the Aosta Valley first. We pack up, say goodbye to our German neighbours, service the Hymer and pay the machine to let us out the gate. Looking at the road atlas is enough to convince me to let the GPS pick the route, I just set Aosta as a destination.

We are barely out the gate and heading up the hill onto the A9 when the drizzle starts.

Aosta, Valle d'Aosta/Vallée d'Aoste, Italy

It’s been a slow drive, given the drizzle and occasional rain shower. I set the cruise control at 90 kph, put on some blues.

We don’t need to be in France tonight and the weather is predicted to improve tomorrow so we bale. Re-setting the GPS for a sosta in Hône.

Hône, Valle d'Aosta/Vallée d'Aoste, Italy

As we turn for the sosta we see a fortress on the hill. Maybe worth exploring ?

Pam won’t like this photo, but we no sooner pull up and she is in her ‘lets go for a walk’ mode. So let’s explain the village of Hône is on one side of the Dora Baltea (river) and the village of Bard on the other side. Hope that clears things up.

An un-named stream passes by the sosta, so we stop and take in the view.

Crossing the bridge that links Hône to Bard.

Practicing with portrait mode on the iPhone.

Walking up Hône’s narrow laneways to Forte Bard.

Another random photo of someone’s coutyard.

We are only half surprised (no one is about) to find Forte Bard is closed on Monday as was every bar and cafe we passed, your can guess what today is ? So we wander back to the Hymer, it’s all downhill is some consolation. As tomorrow is another day we will make it a morning walk on Tuesday.

Planning our departure to reach the fort by 10am, we set off once more. The weather forecast was right, it’s a lovely sunny morning.

Access to the fort is via 3 funiculars and one conventional lift. The funicular and lifts are all free as is walking around the external parts of the fort.

There are 3 museums inside the fort complex as well as a hotel and conference centre. We take the cheapest option, local history museum €7.50.

It’s an interesting experience, who, why and when of the forts of the Aosta Valley.

Guns, cannon and the usual models of the machines of siege war.

The view from the top of the casements is amazing on a bright clear morning.

Michael and Pam's Photo Sphere (Forte Bard Pano, Aosta Valley)

So we have done Bard Fortress and make our way back across the bridge to Hône and the Hymer. We pack up and have another coffee, before paying the machine and escaping the sosta. Over our coffee we chat about Hône and Bard, neither town rate a mention in the Lonely Planet, yet we enjoyed a lovely walk around these villages. We visited an interesting museum and learnt about the somewhat turbulant history of the valley, yet it wasn’t planned we just stumbled upon it. Reminding us what a wonderful adventure motorhoming can be.

Back on the road…Mont Blanc gives us a wave.

Michael and Pam

Edited with BlogPad Pro

Leave a comment Cancel reply

One thought on “Hône/Bard, Italy 2018 🇮🇹”