Marta's Monterosa Blog

I am passionate about the Alps. They are my heart's home and the place where I would like to spend the last day of my life. I have been a tourist in the village of Champoluc in the Italian Monterosa for all my life and worked as a tourist operator in this area since more than 15 years.

I believe in respect for the special environment of this place that you can find only here. We all gain by enjoying its beauty, while trying to make a minimum impact at the same time. Leave it for our children in the future!

I believe in respect for people who live here with their traditions and culture, language, and work, their genuine products and delicious wines. They open their homes for us, tourists and meet us as their guests, if we are able to open our hearts for them. I have a friend who is a hotel owner and he says that when stressed people from the city come to his place, he tells them to sit down and take a drink before they even begin to worry if they have a room. Perhaps, we can bring a little of their kindness and calmness with us on our way back to the city.

My philosophy is to give back a little of what the mountains and the people from this place have given to me and to my family through my work, to communicate my philosophy and my passion to those who follow me on the blog, and in my trips as a tour operator.

If you would like to visit Champoluc, Gressoney, Alagna or other villages in the Aosta Valley, trek or ski in the Monterosa, discover Sardinia or other places we offer, contact us.

Finale, a secret place in Liguria, Italy

Posted: Feb 10, 2011
Categories: Gressoney, Blog
Comments: 0
I came home yesterday and still cant believe that I was going around at the beginning of February with 18 degrees of temperature. Climate in Northern Italy can be real nice, especially because it had been snowing until Sunday in the same place!
I am in Finale, a secret spot for the mainstream of tourism, and this is only a positive thing! Finale is composed by 3 different parts: on the beach – Finalmarina, the town Finale Ligure and the citadel from the Middle Age, when people did not go to the beach if not to fish, occasionally – Finalborgo. And the surroundings are also Finale. Difficult to understand? Don’t try with Google because they cant help!

There is the sea, the old town with the tiny streets, there is the Italian food as ever, but there is also a huge playground for all kind of playing taste. The surroundings of this beautiful Italian village on the coast between Genova and Sanremo (Nice) is perfect for free climbing, biking, hiking, horse back riding, whale watching, surfing, paragliding, and everything in between.
But still it is secret and not so many people, apart the insiders, find their way. I got the best information through a guy who lives half the year in Gressoney and half the year in Finale and is the guru of freeride and climbing – Andrea Gallo. He writes and publish the most essential guides about snow freeride in Monte Rosa and about biking and climbing in Finale. A must!

He was telling me about those two other guys who are called il Bandito e la Principessa, who fell in love for Finale for a couple of years ago and who then decided to buy a disrupted castle and call it as themselves – Il Bandito e la Principessa is today a fairy Agriturismo with a very personal touch. Il bandito takes care of the heavy machines in the wineyard and la Principessa cooks marmellata di pere e cannella, and bakes the daily bread.
All when they are not out climbing the falesia of the area!
I was sold out at the beautiful sight of Varigotti – villaggio saraceno, where I was having my holidays with my family in the Sixties, and now has become a luxury place, due to the spectacular lanscape, the sea, clear as in Sardinia, and the fact that the village is on the beach. There is lots of history about this place but I don’t believe this is the right palce to talk about it.

We went for a long walk up on the hills – I always do like this when I get to the sea…
And we saw a cave from the first men who lived here – 350.000 years ago. I don’t blame them for choosing this particular place.
 
I am going to be in this area in May again and I think I will have even more to tell then. For the moment I wish you all to be able to spend some few hours in the arms of the Mediterranean sea in winter and have the luck to forget yourself for a moment and feel secure. what could go wrong when all is so perfect as a place like this can show
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Tags: trekking , Gressoney , freeride , climbing

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