Valpelline: the Alpine Cradle of Fontina DOP

The valley that invented fontina

Ask any Valdostan where the finest fontina is made and the answer is almost always the same: in Valpelline. This lateral valley that branches off from the Aosta valley floor toward the southwest, in the direction of the Grand Combin and the Swiss border, is the historic heartland of the most famous cheese in the Valle d'Aosta. Here, on pastures between 1,800 and 2,400 metres, red-and-black pied Valdostan cows graze on grass rich in aromatic herbs — yarrow, alpine clover, gentian — that lend the alpeggio fontina its complex and unmistakable flavour, one that industrial fontina can never replicate. The production cycle has been the same for centuries: dawn milking, curdling in a copper vat, ageing in natural caves where constant temperature and humidity do the rest.

The village of Valpelline, the main settlement of the eponymous municipality at 960 metres above sea level, is a quiet rural borgo that lives on farming and a discreet form of tourism — more hikers and food lovers than holidaymakers. It lacks the scenery of Courmayeur and the buzz of Cervinia: it has something rarer — authenticity.

The borgo and its hamlets

The centre of Valpelline clusters around the parish church of San Pantaleone, with a Romanesque stone bell tower and, inside, a gilded baroque wooden altarpiece of fine craftsmanship and a medieval processional crucifix. The local stone houses, with roofs of lose — heavy stone slabs that resist wind and snow — and time-blackened wooden balconies, retain the look of a mountain community shaped by centuries of work. The façades still carry construction dates carved into the stone of the lintels: 1642, 1718, 1803.

The hamlets climb up along the valley, each with its own chapel and cluster of rural houses. Oyace, perched on a rocky spur at 1,377 metres, is particularly striking: a natural balcony over the valley with a pentagonal medieval tower — the remnant of an ancient castle — and a handful of houses wedged between rock and void. Bionaz, higher still, is the base for excursions toward the Lac de Place-Moulin and the Grand Combin glaciers.

The rural trails

Valpelline is crossed by a network of trails linking the borghi, the alpine pastures, and the high-altitude reservoirs. These are not alpine climbing routes but rural paths that shepherds and their herds have trodden for centuries. Among the finest:

- Sentiero delle cappelle — connects the hamlets through larch forests and flower-filled meadows, touching the stone votive chapels that dot the landscape and speak of the mountain's popular devotion.

- Lac de Place-Moulin — the large reservoir at the head of the valley, reachable by car to the dam or on foot from Bionaz, is ringed by peaks exceeding 3,500 metres. The dam, at 155 metres one of the tallest in Italy, is impressive in its own right. The path skirting the lake to the head of the valley offers panoramas of rare grandeur.

- Ru de Ville — a walk along the ancient irrigation channel, easy and panoramic, crossing mid-slope meadows with views across the valley and surrounding mountains. The ru are the channels the Valdostans built to carry water from mountain streams to fields and meadows: a masterpiece of rural engineering.

- Alta Via n. 1 — the celebrated Valdostan trekking route passes through here on the stretch between Oyace and the Rifugio Nacamuli at Col Collon, one of the most demanding and spectacular stages of the entire route.

Fontina and the table

A visit to Valpelline is not complete without a full gastronomic immersion. Fontina DOP is the thread running through every meal:

- Seupa à la Vapelenentse — the soup that bears the valley's name: layers of stale rye bread, sliced alpeggio fontina, and savoy cabbage, soaked in meat broth and baked until a golden crust forms. It is the most iconic dish of Valdostan cuisine, and here, in its homeland, it has a flavour that elsewhere can only be imitated.

- Fonduta — fontina melted with butter, egg yolks, and warm milk, served piping hot with slices of dark bread and, in season, shavings of white truffle from Alba. Valpelline fontina melts perfectly, forming a smooth and enveloping cream.

- Alpeggio fontina — taste those marked CTF (Consorzio Tutela Fontina) and from Valpelline: the flavour shifts from season to season, from one pasture to the next, and a comparative tasting of two or three different agings is as educational as it is delicious.

- Tegole and paste di meliga — thin almond and hazelnut wafers or cornmeal biscuits, perfect with coffee or an end-of-meal génépy.

The restaurants in the valley are few and simple, often attached to agriturismi where dishes are prepared with the farm's own ingredients: meat from Valdostan cattle, vegetables from the kitchen garden, cheese from the mountain dairy. It is the kind of cooking that cannot be replicated elsewhere because it depends entirely on the land and the season.

Getting there and when to go

Valpelline is about 20 minutes from Aosta, following the regional road that leaves from Variney on the valley-floor highway. There is no railway and public transport is infrequent: a car is necessary. The best period runs from June to September, when the alpine pastures are active, the trails passable, and the restaurants open. At the end of September the désarpa — the descent of the herds from the high pastures to the valley floor — is an event not to be missed: cows adorned with flowers, ribbons, and bells pass through the borghi in a celebration of the end of alpine summer, with music, market stalls, and tastings of freshly made fontina. Autumn is splendid for the colours of the larches and the quiet. Winter is silent and snowy, ideal for snowshoeing in the forests but with services reduced to a minimum.