Italy 2026 - Day 10 - Riding the bus network

I had a very poor night sleep, so I wasn't in the best of forms to attempt any long walks. But I didn't want to waste a day napping, so I decided to take advantage of the local buses to go visit other of the small towns of the Vale of Ayas. I was under the misunderstanding that Ayas was an actual town so I wanted to see it. But I am getting ahead of myself.

My first goal was the small village of Saint-Jaques-des-Allemands at the farthest north end of the Torrente Evançon. The Italian word "torrente" describes to perfection the waterfalls and rapids of the stream as its gradient steepens close to the foothills of Monte Rosa. As the name indicates Saint-Jaques was established by the Germanic inhabitants of the upper valley (l'Oberwallis or Walser) who moved into the region in the XII or XIII century to farm the high meadows. These folks also engaged in the quarrying of soapstone--another name for serpentinite--to carve from it water-tight vases that are now found in medieval archeologic sites all over the alpine region.

The hamlet itself consists of only a few ancient houses, which looked deserted, probably by the migration of young people to the larger cities. Not feeling like climbing I walked happily following the torrent, enjoying the sounds of nature and snapping pictures of torrential rapids.

Eventually I came back to Champoluc, and seeing a bus labeled Ayas I asked for a ticket to Ayas. The driver was confused, because I was in the Valley of Ayas, so I explained that I wanted to go south, to the town of Ayas. Laughing he explained to me that the town to the south was Verrés, and yes, he would be happy to take me there for just 3.30 euros. It took an hour to go down the valley, with a considerable loss in elevation and a noticeable warming up of the ambient air.

Verrés has a medieval castle that they open during Carnival to have a Medieval fair, and an old town where a muralist has made a killing by decorating the walls with scenes of medieval life (the style indicates to me that all the murals were done by the same hand). The paintings are very good and show jousts, dances, feasts, and many more groups of happy people wearing colorful robes (which I very much doubt were so clean and bright in the Middle Ages).

I wondered around looking for a spot where I could park myself for a while, but had little luck. The old library has been closed, and part of it has been leased to a doctor to run his practice. The city park was tiny and surrounded by cyclonic fence, and the newer part of town is not particularly cute. I did find a trattoria where the working people come to have lunch, so I treated myself to a primo de pasta all'Arrabbiatta (pasta in a spicy sauce), un secondo de medaglioni di mailae in salsa al funghi (medallions of pork in a mushroom sauce), a complemento of mashed potatoes, and a cream cake as dolce. Pretty good stuff.

And that is about it for things I have to tell you about what has been a comparatively quite day. Hopefully I will have a good sleep tonight and have more energy for adventuring tomorrow.