The best cycling routes around Pontboset

Brusson is a renowned mountain resort, renowned for its tranquil atmosphere and Alpine landscapes. Its heart is the lake, an easily accessible body of water perfect for relaxing walks, picnics, and outdoor activities. In winter, the town becomes a hub for cross-country skiing.

very beautiful hill with slopes around 10%

Always interesting glimpses😜

The castle of Saint-Germain was built between the 11th and 12th centuries by the De Mongioveto family, probably to control the road below and to convince travellers to pay them a toll. The central keep and a first circle of walls date back to this period, perhaps on a pre-existing structure. In particular, Feidino De Mongioveto seems to have been particularly tenacious and oppressive in demanding the toll, to the point that the Duke of Savoy had the pretext to take over the fortress. The castle did not remain in the Savoy family for long. The fief of Montjovet, and therefore the castle, witnessed the rise of the Challants when in 1295 it became the property of the family. Francesco di Challant, advisor to Duke Amedeo VIII of Savoy, brought the castle back into Savoyard hands in 1438, ceding the castellany of Montjovet with the castle, the lands and the village. Amadeus VIII and his successors contributed to making the castle increasingly efficient by updating it to new military techniques. The new city walls, battery positions, turrets and cannon positions date back to this period. In 1661 the castle was abandoned and artfully demolished to prevent foreign troops from stationing there, at the behest of Charles Emmanuel II of Savoy, while the garrison was transferred to the fort of Bard. At the beginning of the 18th century it finally fell into ruin. Today the castle of Saint-Germain is owned by the Aosta Valley Region.

While traveling along the Via Francigena, on the stretch from Arnad to Bard, you cross this characteristic three-arched pedestrian bridge. On the left orogr. area with a bench for rest.

Emarese is located on a beautiful plateau that is sunny all year round. The village has beautiful stone houses, many of which have been renovated respecting the original materials and architecture. On the walls of some of these houses, reproductions of period photos have been hung, showing the faces of the people who lived in the village in a past that is becoming increasingly distant.

The Chiesa del Santissimo Salvatore in Quincinetto, Italy, is a beautiful parish church located in the center of the village, near the bell tower. Although there are reports of medieval origins since 1297, the church was rebuilt in 1770 in the current late Baroque style, according to the design of architect Bella. The church is 35 meters long and has three chapels on each side. The facade is decorated with beautiful frescoes by the famous painter Carlo Cogrossi from Treviglio. The facade has two marker bands that divide it into registers. The lower registers contain six niches with statues of saints, while the upper register shows an altar icon of the Redeemer in relief. The church has a spacious and bright single-nave space with twelve windows that illuminate the interior. The walls are decorated with frescoes of the Via Crucis, altars and decorative floral motifs. The presbytery is crowned with a red canopy and houses an impressive altar in brick and imitation marble. Four frescoes in the presbytery show scenes from the life of Jesus. The church also contains a unique painting of Jesus as the Redeemer. The walls of the choir are decorated with biblical scenes set after the Resurrection of Christ, painted by Carlo Antonio Cogrossi.

The Roman road of the Gauls, built to connect Rome with the Rhone Valley, has in the Donnas section one of its most characteristic and spectacular points, carved out of the living rock over a length of 221 metres. In a place where in ancient times the rocky promontory plunged into the waters of the Dora, the Romans launched a real challenge to nature by carving out a living rock on which they could draw perfectly vertical walls and in whose bosom they cut the roadbed. Exciting and unusual, here the Via delle Gallie gives its best by offering the spectacle of a vaulted passage 4 metres thick, 4 metres high and almost 3 metres wide that eloquently illustrates the amount of rock removed and shows all the refinement of a road engineering never again achieved until viaducts and modern tunnels. In the Middle Ages it served as a gate to the village, which was closed at night; The other defences were of course: on one side the mountain and on the other the river. A fundamental road, much used over the centuries, as evidenced by the deep ruts left by the passage of carts and the wear of the walking surface that has been patched and repaired at various points over time. A little further on, on the right, we recognise the excellent profile of a milestone, also spared in the rocky bank, which informs us of the distance to Augusta Praetoria (the current city of Aosta): XXXVI miles (about 54 km).