Travel + Leisure

TRAVEL + LEISURE / MARCH 2016

BOTTOM: ENRICO ROMANZI

EAT, GUSH, REPEAT

Back at Courmayeur, the town’s famed après-

ski scene is alive and shimmying. Courmayeur

doesn’t skimp on the glamour and big star draws.

Last year British celebrity chefs Sat Bains, Marcus

Wareing and Heston Blumenthal curated a

gourmet experience for one of the 5-star chalet

lodges, which included Blumenthal guiding

participants in the uber-premium tour through

the fi ne points of creating the perfect hot chocolate.

I’m staying at the more homey but quietly lavish

Villa Novecento. Equally cosy, but refurbished to

a more 60’s Italian style is the Duca d’Aosta Hotel.

where I down a glass of the potent local poison, an

Italian absinthe called génépy.

Skiers and non-skiers alike don’t need an

excuse to hotfoot it to one of Europe’s most

famous thermal spas, just 10 minutes from the

town centre. The QC Terme Pre Saint Didier is

set in cavernous premises (attached to its own

swanky resort) and features thermal pools,

Turkish baths, Vichy showers, waterfalls and

saunas. After a blissful morning, it may be time

to book a table at the hottest table in town. The

and mullioned and cross windows may be de

rigeur for Roman castles in the 1800s, but this one

is special. Fort Bard was one of the prime locations

for the 2015 blockbuster Avengers—Age of Ultron.

A fan will recognise it as the headquarters of

super-villain Baron von Strucker, and the castle

where Ultron works out his evil plan to destroy the

Earth. If you nurse any world domination desires

yourself, book one of the 11 artistically decorated

rooms at Hotel Cavour et des Offi ciers inside the

old garrison. When you set out to explore, you’ll

realise how massive this military fortress is—

formed around three defense stations, it rises to

1,500 feet in a spiral design.

SALUD!

With Michelin starred restaurants and the freshest of produce, it’d be a wonder if
the Aosta Valley didn’t have a local wine to fl aunt. The Blanc de Morgex et de La
Salle Piagne is a biological wine produced in the vineyards of Morgex, the highest
in Europe at a height of 700 feet on the slopes of Monte Bianco. Clear yellow in
colour with green refl ections, it smells of Alpine herbs and has almond accents
with a hay and cedar aftertaste. Savour it leisurely at a Gran Paradiso picnic with
nibbles of Gressoney Toma cheese and Sant Marcel ham.

FROM LEFT:

Botanical garden

outside the Punta

Helbronner; Fort

de Bard; on the

streets of Aosta;

Roman city ruins

in Aosta; hiking in

Val Ferret;

restaurant on

Funivie Monte

Bianco.