I miss my family

It was an easy but soggy walk today quite warm despite the rain and arrived at the very nice hotel looking like a wet dog dripping on the foyer carpet and put my trekking poles and smelly hat on the reception counter.
Feeling rather down in the dumps today and wanting to go home where I can play with my own toys. To pick myself up as no one else around to do that I thought a nice meal in a lekker Italian restaurant would go some way to fix the morbs.

Went to an osteria down the road from my hotel because my hotel restaurant was a bit posh for me and I felt like more of a warm family vibe.
Osterias are generally family run restaurants with a family feel. Anyway, mama sits me down at tavolo due and gives me an English menu despite my best Italian and I order a salad, traditional stew and a glass of red of her choice and I am pleased to report that the Italians know how to pour wine not like the Swiss or maybe she just liked me.
Anyway I digress. Love watching a hungry young person in a restaurant: at the adjacent table sits three middle aged folk and with them a solid looking young man clearly the son of one of them. So the youngster finishes his meal in quick time, then eyes his mother cheese fundu which is basically the size of a bucket and way way way too much for her. When he is finished that, his eyes his father’s meal and dad can only handle half of his then he inhales a tiramisu faster the I can. I quickly finished my tiramisu just in case because I was hungry after a long walk and only nuts and dried fruit on the trail. Just so as you know it was my second best tiramisu- the best was the one I had last night in Étroubles, or was it the one I had the night before at Col Grand St Bernardo I loose track hahaha

Aosta is a bit like a mini Sienna except not if you know what I mean because it is not on a steep slope. It was among the many cities founded by the Romans, and today is home to important antiquities from the Imperial Age. Augusta Praetoria (Aosta) was founded in 25 BC at the confluence of rivers, and the intersection of two important roads, one leading to the Alpis Poenina Pass (the Gran San Bernardo), from where I walked, the other to the Alpis Graia (the Piccolo San Bernardo or Little St Bernards Pass). Thus located on one of the main transalpine routes, hence its wealth. And then there is the prosperity of the 1300’s and after when these guys made serious money - though mostly further south like in Turin. But they did okay here.
Modern Aosta is now a thriving commercial and industrial centre as well as a popular destination for winter snow sports; and in summer, access to vast areas on mountain activities
Day off tomorrow to be a tourist - when in Aosta, do as the Romans did.Read more