Cogne is at 5,032 ft. and we traveled down to 1,912 ft. The weather here was much warmer and, once again, surprisingly sunny. Whereas Cogne has about 1600 residents, Aosta has about 35,000.
Its claim to fame is that it was founded by the Romans in 25 BC, primarily as a military camp, but then it evolved in the first century AD to a city. It is often called “The Rome of the Alps” because of the lifestyle that occurred here during Roman times. The city has done a very good job of excavating ruins and restoring some of the existing ones.
We had a local guide give us a city tour, but, unfortunately, she was not very good and hard to understand.
But I did get some interesting photos.
Like all Roman cities, it was surrounded by walls. This was a storage tower that has survived.
We walked by the city hall, which was a very beautiful Italianate building, but they were setting up for some sporting event out front.
From there we walked down a city street to the Roman Theatre, which dates to about 1 AD. The main facade is about 70 ft. high.
What is still apparent are some of the semicircular seating area and the stage backwall.
Around 1,000 AD, the nuns of St. Joseph built a convent and used the stones from the theater for their facility.
We also visited the Cathedral of Aosta, also known as the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist.
The church was built around 400 A.D. and the present one was completed in 1848. The church door was quite beautiful although the interior was very austere.
Near the church was the cryptoporticus which initially was part of the Augusta Praetorian forum.
Another part of the Roman ruins was the old city gate. Known as the Pretorian Gate, it was one of the main entrances to the city during Roman times.
We visited another church, the Church of Sant’Orso. I thought the architecture was unique for a church built in the Middle Ages and the cloister was beautiful.
Then Sydney and I had panini and pizza for lunch for $4 and caught the bus back to Cogne at 1:30. We spent the rest of the day walking around Cogne.
This is a photo of the back of our hotel.
We also walked by the museum where we had the tour on Monday, an example of an early farm house and barn, with open slats, to allow the hay to dry in winter.
Later we stopped at a quaint cafe and had cappuccino with chocolate sprinkled on top. To our surprise, it bubbled up and then collapsed, but it was delicious.
As we walked back to our hotel, we saw some preschoolers learning how to ride a two-wheeler. Made me think about my granddaughters, especially Lorelei who is also learning now.
Tonight another Italian meal at the hotel and off to bed.
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