Valsavarenche

The narrowest and wildest of the valleys in the Val d’Aosta: a genuine backwater of authentic wilderness! Situated in an uncontaminated environment, the valley is criss-crossed with wide mule tracks at higher altitudes. It is the most valuable legacy of the hunter king, Victor Emanuel II of Savoy who fell hopelessly in love with the charm of these places and built royal houses for the purpose of hunting alpine ibex and alpine chamois, thus creating the Royal Hunting Reserve which in time led to the creation of the first Italian national park. Two important people were born in this valley, Emile Chanoux, a key person in the antifascism movement that preceded liberation in 1945, and Federico Chabod who during the same period fathered the autonomous region project of the Val d’Aosta.