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.
Picked by Peter Benei
Letter to come
Visiting
- Best time
- Jun–Sep, Dec–Mar
- By car
- 1 h 38 min from Turin
- Population
- 1,358
- J1°
- F3°
- M3°
- A6°
- M12°
- J17°
- J20°
- A20°
- S15°
- O11°
- N5°
- D1°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime air temperature, averages for 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
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 1,358 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.
How to get there
From Turin (TRN), about 1 h 35 min by car.
Milan Bergamo (BGY) is about 2 h 50 min away.
By car from the center of Genoa 2 h 59 min.
Every town within reach of Turin airport.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
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.
From the guides
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.
Before you sit down: how to order at a restaurant, how to spot a tourist trap, what aperitivo is and how the Italian bar works.
Living here
Could you live here?
Ayas is at the end of the road.
- A village of 1,358. The nearest town of 5,000 people, Aosta, is 1 h 12 min away: past our 15-minute rule, which makes this the end of the road.
- Aosta, a city of 33,096, is 1 h 3 min by car. Further than our 30 to 60 minutes, a long way for the hospital visit or the monthly shopping.
The rules come from our series Where to Move in Italy, written from the places we have lived: Part 1, The End of the Road · Part 2, The Small Town · Part 3, The City · Part 4, The Postcard · Part 5, The Other Half. The towns we would pick are in Part 6, The Best Towns.
- Population 1,358, down 4.6% since 2015
- Nearest city Aosta, 1 h 3 min drive
- Nearest national health service hospital Aosta, 31 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
- Homes in the center: €3,800 to €5,600 per m² to buy, €7.40 to €11.10 per m² a month to rent
All the numbers Common questions, designations, lists and sources.
More about living here
- Remote
- Pharmacy in town
- Full fibre reaches 75% of homes
- Primary school in the comune
- Earthquake zone 3, low hazard
- Turin airport (TRN), 1 h 35 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
- Regional capital Aosta, 1 h 3 min drive
If you are moving here
Who lives here
5% of residents are foreign citizens, most often from Romania, Morocco and the United Kingdom, against 9% across Italy. 23 of them come from English-speaking countries or western and northern Europe, mostly the United Kingdom and Sweden. There are 151 people over 65 for every 100 children under 15, against 216 across Italy. 87% of homes have no resident, holiday homes and empty ones counted together, against 27% across Italy. Aosta province ranks 13th of 107 in Il Sole 24 Ore's quality of life ranking for 2025.
Health and schools
The nearest emergency room is in Aosta, 31 km as the crow flies, and it is a major one. It has a children's emergency room too. The nearest IB school is World International School of Torino, 78 km as the crow flies.
Information, not medical advice. Confirm with a professional.
Taxes
A home that is not your main one pays 0.84% a year in property tax, charged on the cadastral value rather than the price. A main home pays none unless it is in a luxury category. 7% pensioner tax: this town is not in a qualifying area.
Information, not tax advice. Confirm with a professional.
What it costs
The average household in Aosta Valley spends about €2,570 a month, €530 of it on food, against about €2,170 across Italy. A family of three pays about €313 a year for water, on the Aosta Valley average. In Aosta, the provincial capital, in September 2026, an espresso cost €1.12, a meal in a pizzeria €13.45 and a man's haircut €20.20.
Climate and risk
It is in climate zone F, the coldest of Italy's six, with no national limit on when the heating runs. 8% of residents live in a zone the national maps rate high for floods, 14% in a high or medium one. 10% live in a zone rated high or very high for landslides.
These shares cover the whole comune, not any one street. Check an address on IdroGEO.
Moving from abroad? Which visa you need. Sources: ISTAT, the Ministry of Health, ISPRA, the Finance Ministry, the Ministry of Enterprise, Poste Italiane, the comuni, the IB, International Schools Database, Il Sole 24 Ore, Cittadinanzattiva.
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.
Common questions
- What is Ayas known for?
- Ayas is a scattered upper-valley commune of three villages, where Walser settlers and Romance-speaking herders share the slopes below Castor and Pollux.
- Where is Ayas?
- Ayas is a comune in the Aosta Valley, at 1710 meters above sea level.
- What is the nearest airport to Ayas?
- The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Turin (TRN), about 1 h 35 min by car.
- How long is the drive from Genoa to Ayas?
- About 2 h 59 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit Ayas?
- Best in Jun–Sep, Dec–Mar. July is the warmest month, averaging 20 degrees, and June the wettest, with about 19 rain days.
- Which other towns are like Ayas?
- Cogne, Valtournenche and Canazei.
- How many people live in Ayas?
- 1,358 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
- Is Ayas a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Ayas is at the end of the road: the nearest town of 5,000 people, Aosta, is 1 h 12 min away. The nearest city, Aosta, is 1 h 3 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in Aosta, 31 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 75% of homes.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources
Recognized as
Landscape
The numbers
- Elevation: 1710 m
- Population: 1,358
- Surface area: 129.42 km²
These figures were compiled from public directories: ISTAT, OpenStreetMap and Wikidata, and from the official listings of the guides named on this page. Town details change; verify with official sources before you travel.
The ranked lists
Lists Ayas appears in
- The 7 Aosta Valley villages above 1,000 metersAosta Valleyabove 1,000 m7 towns · smallest 476 residents
- The best ski towns in the Aosta ValleyAosta Valleyski area8 towns · smallest 767 residents
- The best towns that eat well in the Aosta ValleyAosta Valleyeats well8 towns · smallest 102 residents
- The best mountain towns within two hours of TurinNear Turinmountainwithin 2 hours10 towns · smallest 87 residents · closest 88 min away
Featured on
Ayas appears on this themed pick from our Collections:
Similar
Towns like Ayas
What all six share with Ayas: high in the mountains · under 3,000 people · mountain towns above 1,000 metres
The letter
Read a sample letter
Chioggia | Everyone is wrong about this town
It’s not an alternative to Venice
Letters from the towns we visit. Free.
Paid plans, the moving year and the books are on the membership page.