Aosta Valley · Aosta Valley
Aymavilles
A village at 646 meters above a river gorge, where the road up the valley begins and a Roman aqueduct still crosses the Grand'Eyvia on a single arch.
Picked by Peter Benei
Letter to come
Why Aymavilles is on our list
It holds Città del Vino.
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Visiting
- Best time
- May–Oct
- By car
- 1 h 46 min from Turin
- Population
- 2,098
- J7°
- F11°
- M11°
- A14°
- M20°
- J25°
- J29°
- A29°
- S23°
- O19°
- N13°
- D8°
- Best
- Hot or crowded
- Quiet
- Mostly closed
Daytime air temperature, averages for 2020–2024. Weather data by Open-Meteo.com.
Why come
The village sits on the right bank of the river, eight kilometers west of Aosta, at the point where a side valley opens toward the Gran Paradiso massif. The name traces to Caius Avilius Caimus, the Roman from Padua who commissioned the aqueduct-bridge over the Grand'Eyvia, so the settlement's identity is bound to that gorge crossing rather than to the castle that later came to dominate its skyline. Around the castle the ground has been given over to terraced vineyards, the fruit of which the Cave des Onze Communes, the region's largest cooperative, draws in from this slope and from the neighbouring communes of Sarre, Saint-Pierre and Introd.
The result is a village organized around two axes that rarely overlap: one running up toward the national park and the high side valley, the other lying flat along the river terraces where the vines are grown. What holds Aymavilles together is less a single monument than this position at a threshold, a place people pass through on the way to the high valley or use as the working ground for wine that is drunk elsewhere.
How to get there
From Turin (TRN), about 1 h 43 min by car.
Milan Bergamo (BGY) is about 2 h 58 min away.
By car from the center of Genoa 3 h 7 min.
Every town within reach of Turin airport.
First time driving in Italy? Read our complete manual.
What to see
Castello di Aymavilles
The rectangular medieval core is still legible beneath the additions: Aimone di Challant's four towers give the building its silhouette from the valley road, while the eighteenth-century decoration softens the fortress into a residence.
Pont d'Aël
The arch carries the water channel across the gorge on a single span, and the covered passage beneath it can still be walked, putting a visitor directly under the old aqueduct bed with the torrent below.
Cave des Onze Communes
Largest wine cooperative in Valle d'Aosta, open since 1990, working over sixty hectares of vineyards around Sarre, Saint-Pierre, Introd and Aymavilles.
Vigneti del Torrette
Terraced vineyards on the slopes around the castle, the heart of the Torrette DOC red wine area, walkable by foot and by bicycle.
Ingresso Parco Nazionale Gran Paradiso
Northern gateway to Italy's first national park (1922), with the road up the Cogne Valley starting just above the village toward the Gran Paradiso massif.
Living here
Could you live here?
Aymavilles is at the end of the road.
- A village of 2,098. The nearest town of 5,000 people, Aosta, is 31 min away: past our 15-minute rule, which makes this the end of the road.
- Aosta, a city of 33,096, is 22 min by car. Closer than our 30 to 60 minutes: handy for everything, so check the town still keeps a life of its own.
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 2,098, up 0.5% since 2015
- Nearest city Aosta, 22 min drive
- Nearest national health service hospital Aosta, 7 km as the crow flies · how healthcare works in Italy
- Homes in the center: €1,300 to €1,900 per m² to buy, €4.40 to €6.50 per m² a month to rent
All the numbers Common questions, designations, lists and sources.
More about living here
- Commuter belt
- Pharmacy in town
- High school within a 30-minute drive
- Full fibre reaches 79% of homes
- Primary school in the comune
- Earthquake zone 3, low hazard
- Turin airport (TRN), 1 h 43 min drive, the nearest with scheduled flights
- Regional capital Aosta, 22 min drive
If you are moving here
Who lives here
6% of residents are foreign citizens, most often from Romania, Morocco and Albania, against 9% across Italy. There are 207 people over 65 for every 100 children under 15, against 216 across Italy. 44% 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, 7 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, 72 km as the crow flies.
Information, not medical advice. Confirm with a professional.
Taxes
A home that is not your main one pays 0.86% 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. The town adds 0.15% to your income tax, with nothing due on income under €18,000. 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 E, on a scale from A, the warmest, to F, the coldest, and heating may run from October 15 to April 15, up to 14 hours a day, unless the mayor changes it. 1% of residents live in a zone the national maps rate high for floods, 3% in a high or medium one. 5% 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
FOUR-TOWERED CASTLE
Castle on a thirteenth-century core, given its four corner towers by Aimone di Challant in the fourteenth century and a baroque overlay in the eighteenth.
PONT D'AËL
Roman aqueduct from 3 BC, single arch 56 meters above the Grand'Eyvia, with a covered pedestrian passage running beneath the water channel.
TORRETTE
Center of the Torrette DOC, with the Cave des Onze Communes (1990) drawing on more than sixty hectares of terraced vineyards above the Dora Baltea.
Common questions
- What is Aymavilles known for?
- Aymavilles is a village at 646 meters above a river gorge, where the road up the valley begins and a Roman aqueduct still crosses the Grand'Eyvia on a single arch.
- Where is Aymavilles?
- Aymavilles is a comune in the Aosta Valley.
- What is the nearest airport to Aymavilles?
- The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Turin (TRN), about 1 h 43 min by car.
- How long is the drive from Genoa to Aymavilles?
- About 3 h 7 min by car.
- When is the best time to visit Aymavilles?
- Best in May–Oct. August is the warmest month, averaging 29 degrees, and May the wettest, with about 17 rain days.
- Which other towns are like Aymavilles?
- Villar San Costanzo, Sepino and Scurcola Marsicana.
- How many people live in Aymavilles?
- 2,098 residents, by ISTAT's count on 1 January 2025.
- Is Aymavilles a good place to live?
- By the rules in our Where to Move in Italy series, Aymavilles is at the end of the road: the nearest town of 5,000 people, Aosta, is 31 min away. The nearest city, Aosta, is 22 min away by car. The nearest national health service hospital is in Aosta, 7 km as the crow flies. Full fibre reaches 79% of homes.
Tags & data designations · numbers · sources
Recognized as
Landscape
The numbers
- Elevation: 646 m
- Population: 2,098
- Surface area: 53.24 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.
Similar
Towns like Aymavilles
What all six share with Aymavilles: mountain-valley towns · under 3,000 people · high up, between 600 and 1,000 metres
The letter
Aymavilles is on our list. Its letter is still to come.
We are writing about all 1,000 of these towns, one at a time, in a free letter: the photo, what is worth eating, and when to turn up. That is our mission. Sign up and you will be there when Aymavilles comes up. By Peter & Sophia, from Turin.
The nearest town we have written up is Camogli, 212 km away. Read its letter →
Paid plans, the moving year and the books are on the membership page.