Aosta Valley · Aosta Valley
Ayas
A scattered upper-valley commune of three villages, where Walser settlers and Romance-speaking herders share the slopes below Castor and Pollux.
Known for
MONTE ROSA
The 4,000-meter peaks of Castor, Pollux and the Breithorn close the valley head, fed by the Verra glacier.
MONTEROSA SKI
Champoluc is one of the three main valleys of the lift-linked domain, sharing 180 kilometers of pistes with Gressoney and Alagna.
WALSER ROOTS
Saint-Jacques-des-Allemands carries the name of the thirteenth-century German-speaking settlers who crossed the Theodul Pass from Valais.
When to visit
Best · Jun–Sep, Dec–Mar
- J
- F
- M
- A
- M
- J
- J
- A
- S
- O
- N
- D
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
The festa: Martino di Tours, 11 November
Why come
Ayas runs along the upper Évançon valley, its municipal seat at Antagnod (1,710 meters) and its main resort centers at Champoluc (1,568 meters) and the hamlet at the valley head. The 1,357 residents are spread across these three villages and dozens of smaller hamlets. Antagnod is the older village, its parish church holding the seventeenth-century altar that makes it the religious seat of the commune.
Champoluc sits lower, on a flat stretch of the upper valley, and functions as the working entry point to the lift domain, with gondola and cable car reaching across two cols into Piedmont. The hamlet at the valley head keeps the medieval name of the German-speaking settlers who farmed these slopes after crossing from Valais in the thirteenth century, while the valley itself is watered by glacial melt from above. The commune, in short, is a set of villages at different altitudes doing different jobs: worship in one, skiing in another, memory of settlement in a third, all fed by the same glacier and the same river.
The Sunday letter
We haven’t written Ayas’s letter yet.
One town every Sunday, with the photo, the food, the festa. Be there when this one comes up. Free, by Peter & Sophia from Pietrasanta.
What to see
Chiesa di San Martino
Parish church in Antagnod with a seventeenth-century polyptych altar, the religious seat of the commune.
Monterosa Ski
Lift-linked domain reaching 3,250 meters, crossing two cols to link the valley with Gressoney-La-Trinité and Alagna Valsesia.
Castore e Polluce
The 4,226-meter Castor and 4,091-meter Pollux, twin peaks of the Monte Rosa massif on the Italy-Switzerland border above the valley head.
Champoluc
Main resort village at 1,568 meters in a flat section of the upper valley, with the principal lift station of the ski domain.
Saint-Jacques-des-Allemands
Hamlet at the valley head whose medieval suffix records the thirteenth-century Walser settlement of these slopes.
Ghiacciaio del Verra
Glacier descending from the Breithorn and Castor, principal source of the Évançon torrent that drains the valley.
The slow-trip planner
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We recommend
Where to eat
Not our picks, but places the guides put their name to: a Michelin star, a Gambero Rosso fork, a Slow Food snail, a Michelin Key for the hotels. Worth a table, a counter, or a night when you pass through.
1568 dell'Hotel Aethos MonterosaBistrot
1568 dell'Hotel Aethos Monterosa has two Gambero Rosso tables to its name.
Living here
- Population 1,357
- Off the beaten pathi
- Pharmacy in town
- Nearest airport Turin, 1 h 35 min drive
- Regional capital Aosta, 1 h 3 min drive
Tags & datadesignations · numbers · sources
Recognised as
The numbers
- Elevation: 1710 m
- Population: 1,357
- Surface area: 129.42 km²
These figures were compiled from public directories — ISTAT, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata — and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.
Close by
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⛷️ Ski Area
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