Street Sign Language Lesson LI – A Ski Trip to Pila, Aosta

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In our 51st edition of Street Sign Language Lesson, we are on the road, headed to Valle d'Aosta. We spent 3 days skiing in Pila (above Aosta). You may notice lots of menus because this trip was definitely about eating as well as skiing. 

First some photos of skiing...

  
Left: Photo of Pila Ski Area in Late Feb 2025 - Pista 1 Chamolé.

Center: Photo of Pila Ski Area - Staring out over Cogne.

Right: Photo of Pila Ski Area - Platta de Grevon with Travelmarx skiing down.

  

Left: Photo of Pila Ski Area - Couis 1 Red Slope with Gasex Pipe for avalanche control.

Center: Photo of Pila Ski Area - View of Pila from top of Chamolé.

Right: Photo of Pila Ski Area - near the bottom of Couis 1.

Now the signs...

Degustazione alla valdostano – Lardo d’Arnad
“A taste of Aosta Valley – Lard of Arnad.“

We saw this menu at Ristorante Al Maniero in Issogne AO. We were on our way to Aosta/Pila and stopped for lunch at this Slow Food recommended restaurant. We always thought degustazione referred to a tasting menu, and it does when the word menù is used with it. By itself, degustazione means a tasting experience. Together with the adjective valdostano, meaning from the Valle D’Aosta, the phrase means a sampling or taste of Valle D’Aosta.

The famous Lardo d’Arnad is a cured pork product produced exclusively within the municipal boundaries of the municipality of Arnad, in lower Aosta Valley, Italy. The lard is produced by curing pieces of fatback in a brine aromatized with herbs and spices such as juniper berry, bay leaf, nutmeg, sage, and rosemary. Perfect for giving you the energy you need to ski.


 

CONIGLIO ALLA CACCIATORA
“Hunter-style rabbit”

This is an Italian dish where the rabbit meat is slow cooked with vegetables and herbs. Alla cacciatora suggests a rustic preparation.

What’s also interesting about these two menus from Hotel Tivet is that it shows how half-board typically works. In the morning at breakfast, you get a list of dinner options, and you choose what you want. (Not on the list was a killer salad-appetizer that could have been dinner in itself.)

We chose Hotel Tivet because it was close to a mid-station of the gondola from Aosta (along the river) to Pila (ski area) and it was easy access for skiing.


   
VALPELLINENTZE (zuppa gratinata di cavolo verza, pane, fontina, brodo)
“Valpellinentze (gratinated soup of cabbage, bread, fontina, and broth)”

Gratinated (au gratin more commonly), in English, means to cook with a covering of buttered crumbs or grated cheese until a crust or crisp surface forms. The soup is from the Valpelline, just north of Aosta. This hearty soup appears on many menus in the Valle d’Aosta area.



AVVISO DELLA CASA DI TOLLERANZA. AI SIG.RI CLIENTI È VIETATO MOLESTARE LE SIGNORINE PRIMA DI AVERE PAGATO LA MARCHETTA. LA DIREZIONE.
“Notice of the house (brothel). Dear clients (men), it is forbidden to harass the young ladies before paying for their services. Management.”

We saw this sign at Rifugio Hermitage, which was our preferred place to grab a coffee, snack, or lunch during our time in Pila skiing. A casa di tollerenza “house of tolerance" is a euphemism for a brothel. The use of the euphemism and the use of la marchetta suggests a formal yet cheeky phrasing suggests it's drawing on older societal norms and attitudes for comedic effect - we hope.



RISCHIO VALANGHE. DEBOLE, MODERATO, MARCATO, FORTE, MOLTO FORTE
“Avalanche risk. Low, moderate, considerable, high, extreme”

Valanga (plural valanghe) is an avalanche. Speaking of avalanches, we often see what looks like a downward facing pipe on steep slopes (see image for one in Pila). These are Gazex pipes, expansion chambers that explosively direct hot gases into the zone at risk in order to set off controlled avalanches.



I percorsi di fuori pista non sono né segnalati né protetti dai pericoli dell’alta montagna dove l’insidia è occulta e nessuno può prevederla in anticipo.
“Off-piste routes are neither marked nor protected from high mountain perils where hazards are hidden and cannot be foreseen in advance.”

We know, we should be paying attention to skiing, but this sign caught our eye, especially the part l’insidia è occulta?

Insidia is hidden danger. Yet occulta means hidden as well. To us, the sentence in Italian seems repetitive. Maybe the sentence could be written as “I percorsi di fuori pista non sono né segnalati né protetti dai pericoli occulti dell’alta montagna che nessuno può prevedere in anticipo.” Don’t you want to come skiing with us to study signs?



Veicolo in panne
“Disabled vehicle”

We rented an MG SUV for the trip. We are not fans. The interfaces were horrible and the vehicle handled poorly.

While playing around with the controls, we came across this screen and wondered why is there would be vehicle in the cream (panna). Jeez.

panna – cream
in panna/in panne – breakdown, more common “panne”

It seems that the phrase in panne comes from French and is a sailing term where you position a sail boat to move forward or backward with the sails in slack position.

Giogo Alto Glacier (Hochjochferner) – Light and Shadow

 
Ghiacciaio di Giogo Alto - Shadow and Light

We visited the Giogo Alto Glacier (in Italian Ghiacciaio del Giogo Alto, in German Hochjochferner) recently on a ski trip to Val Senales. We stayed two nights in Maso Corto at 2,000 m (6,562 ft) - which is at the head of Val Senales, and one night in Rifugio Bella Vista (Gasthof / Schutzhaus Schöne Aussicht) at 2,845 m (9,334 feet), above Maso Corto.

Skiing on the glacier was beautiful, with few people. The play of light - especially with fog and passing clouds was otherworldly. But we were racked with a bit of guilt. Should we be skiing on this retreating glacier?

To reach Rifugio Bella Vista you go up the Hintereis ski lift (loc) and instead of going all the way down the ski run, you hang a right. The position of the rifugio seemed odd at first. Later, while waiting for dinner at the rifugio we looked at the old photos of the glacier and how it has retreated over the years and then it became clear. At one time, the rifugio sat at the edge of the glacier, which has now retreated almost a kilometer away. In winter of course, you can’t perceive this because everything is covered in snow – at least for now. We would like to return in the summer and get a view of this glacier, like we did with the Presena Glacier (see Presena Glacier – A summer visit to the covered glacier). We heard that like Presena, the Giogo Alto Glacier is covered in the summer though we couldn’t confirm it ourselves.

Summer skiing on the Giogo Alto glacier was stopped in 2013.

Nearby the glacier is the site where Ötzi was found. Ötzi the Iceman is the natural mummy of a man who lived between 3350 and 3105 BC and whose remains were discovered on 19 September 1991. The name of the mountain range Ötztal Alps (Alpi Venoste in Italian) lends its name to the mummy, which can be seen in a museum dedicated to him in Bolzano. We first learned of Ötzi in 2008 on a visit to Bolzano. (See The South Tyrol Museum of Archaeological – Ötzi’s Home.)

  

Left: A room in Rifugio Bella Vista.
Center: Rifugio Bella Vista in winter fog, sitting on the hill.
Right: Nearby by Grawand Hotel, the highest situated hotel in Europe.

  

Left: Arriving at top of the glacier from the cable car originating in Maso Corto. 1 km vertical distance.

Center: Chairlifts that run up the side of the glacier with Grawand Hotel at the top.

Right: Skiing down the glacier in fog. Austrian border is just a few meters away.

  

Left: Lunch at Rifugio Bella Vista, a chamois stew.
Center: Dinner at Rifugio Bella Vista.

Right: Always strudel is to be had.


Maso Corto sculpture dedicated to those who built ski infrastructure?

Two Short Winter Hikes in Passo del Tonale, Italy

Overview ~ Hike 1 ~ Hike 2 ~ The Area

    
Left: Walking down the Valbiolo ski run in twilight approaching Passo del Tonale. 
Center left: Tracks for hike 1.
Center right: Walking into the sunset at Passo del Tonale.
Right: Tracks for hike 2.

Overview

Last year, we did two late winter hikes, one west of Ponte di Legno and one east at Passo del Tonale: Two Late Winter Hikes Near Ponte di Legno, Italy. This year, we stayed at a rented house in Passo del Tonale over the New Year. To add diversity to our days instead of just skiing (see How I Learned to Like Skiing – 7 Simple Rules), we looked for hikes to do. Here, we show two simple hikes of under two hours that we did on Jan 2 and Jan 3, 2024. There are hikes more waiting to be discovered in this area.

Both hikes were done in the late afternoon, so we hiked into dusk for both. Start earlier if you can.

Hike 1: Tour delle Marmotte

Duration: 1.25 hours
Elevation: 60 m gain (estimate)
Length: 6 km

Our path on this day we cut short because of waning light and a freezing wind! Otherwise, we would have taken the road up to the cozy Ospizio San Bartolomeo (now called Hotel/Restaurant Mirandola). We, in fact, visited this hotel/restaurant twice in the days before this hike. We include some of those photos here. We had a nice lunch at Ospizio one day and an afternoon hot drink on another. 

On the way back into town for hike 1 we stopped at the Panificio Pezzani to get some strudel to take home for dessert! Don’t miss it.

Passo del Tonale is split between the regions of Lombary (Lombardia in Italian) and Trentino-South Tyrol (Trentino-Alto Adige in Italian). The dividing line is at the landmark Military Memorial Passo del Tonale (Sacrario militare del Tonale). (See Street Sign Language Lesson XL.)

We started the walk here, near the area for campers.

  
Left: Passo del Tonale view north from Tour delle Marmotte trail.
Center and right: Tour delle Marmotte trail with fresh snow between trees.


     

Left: Strudel from Panificio Pezzani, Passo del Tonale.
Center left: View from Hotel Mirandola toward sunset and Valbiolo chairlift.
Center right: Walking near Ospizio San Bartolomeo/Hotel Mirandola.
Right: Starting off on the Tour delle Marmotte trail.

Hike 2: Walk to Galleria Alveo

Duration: 1.5 hours
Elevation: 235 m
Length: 8.5 km

Last summer, we took the gondola up to see the Presena Glacier (see Presena Glacier – A summer visit to the covered glacier). On this hike, we follow the path partly up to the glacier from the pass. Our turnaround point is the Alveo tunnel (Galleria Alveo), a short tunnel through the mountain. The tunnel was made during WWI. If you continue on this trail, you would reach the ex-military village of Monticelli (dating to WW1) and Rifugio Capanna Presena. This is numbered trail 281. (Other references and photos: here and here.)

Alveo in Italian is “riverbed”, referring to the riverbed plateau the trail takes you to. The river is caused by glacier runoff.

Hold on to the ropes in the tunnel. It was very slippery even though it didn’t look to be so.

We started the walk here, near the area for campers. This trail is called 723 – Tour delle Marmotte, which we walked part of in Hike1. Instead of following Marmotte all the way, at this point we caught the trail to Presena (here or here if there is a lot of snow).

  

Left: Trail sign for CAI 281.
Right: View from Trail 218 looking east, near the Galleria Alveo.

   
Ice formations in and near the Galleria Alveo.

  

Left and center: Passo del Tonale in the late afternoon winter sun - Monte Tonale Occidentale visible.

Right: The CAI 281 trail and approaching the tunnel opening.

   

Galleria Alveo - a tunnel made during World War I. Why are tunnels fascinating?

  
Galleria Alveo - a helmet might be smart to wear inside given those icicles!

The area

Eastern Alps

--|Southern Rhaetian Alps (28 in the SOIUSA classification of the Alps, highest peak Ortler at 3,905 m)
--|--|Adamello-Presanella Alps (II/C-28.III SOIUSA, highest peak Presanella at 3,558 m)

The Adamello-Presanella Alps Alpine group is a mountain range in the Southern Limestone Alps mountain group of the Eastern Alps. It is located in northern Italy, in the provinces of Trentino and Brescia. The name stems from its highest peaks: Adamello and Presanella. The Tonale Pass separates the Adamello-Presanella Alps from the Ortler Apls to the the north.