Final Day of Summer

The end of the summer has come. This morning it is pouring rain after a week of grey skies and it definitely feels like the summer is over. Tomorrow school starts anew. Our days will be full but predictable as routine will set in giving us that steady pace for the next 9 months. I think we are all ready even though this summer has been good. It is always a bitter sweet kind of feeling at summer's end.

This week we went on a little afternoon outing as a family. We kept it relatively close to home just venturing across the regional border into Valle d'Aosta to visit Fort Bard. It is only 40 minutes away and we have passed through there many times always on our way somewhere else. The following two images are from an internet search as you have to be really far back to get a perspective on the location and its complete view.  

Fort Bard

View of the narrow passageway into the valley with the village of Bard, the fortress and the river.

We hiked up a stoney path from the free parking lot on the river side to reach the village of Bard. From there we hiked up from the front side of the fort. Thankfully there were lots of fountains with fresh spring water along the path to quench our repeated thirst from the hike.

Chestnuts are nearing their season. Those green balls might look soft and fuzzy but they are worse than a cactus needle if you touch them!

Looking down on the village of Bard

Slate roofs are so pretty

Fort entrance

Looking down on Valle d'Aosta

There were very few visitors at the fort. Maybe the switchback hike up the hill is too intimidating. We enjoyed the scenic views and getting a geology refresher course on the formation of valleys and the stratus of rocks. Glad I studied all of that with Luca last year. I love that we leave so near to mountains and better yet, the Alps!

At the top we treated ourselves to a cappuccino (I nearly fell over when Jonathan ordered one after 12pm!) and some ice cream. 

We bought tickets to visit the prison and although there was not much to see we did watch a good video of the most recent 1,000 year history of Fort Bard and the strategic hilltop location that guards the narrow entrance into the Po Valley. In 1800, for two weeks Fort Bard with its 400 men held off Napoleon Bonaparte's surprise attack to push through the valley entrance with his army of 40,000 men. The stairs that connect the various buildings alongside the hill are actually covered making it easy to travel between supplies without being shot.

After that we headed back down the same way we came again taking in views and the enormity of the fortress.

View from a gun slit

Sculpture made of marble from the area

Rescue Pod...if you get stuck in the mountains this pod is attached to a rope that hangs from a helicopter that you climb inside to be rescued and carried away to safety.

Fun Fact: Fort Bard and the surrounding area now boasts in being the film set location for the movie: Avengers Age of Ultron.

My Ironmen

We actually went home and concluded our fun day by watching the movie to verify all the locations we just saw in person. That is always kind of fun to see familiar locations on the big screen.