Driving through the valley of Aosta, your head turns from right to left, focusing on the surroundings and not on the road, no matter if you are the driver. It happened to me once as a driver, and the second time I visited Aosta Valley, I stopped the car after we entered the valley and gave it to my friend to drive. Being more strategic this time, I make myself a space to enjoy looking at this beautiful nature and mountains in the distance while sitting back in the car.

Aosta Valley is a mountainous region in northwest Italy. From the valley, you can easily see the Italian slopes of Mont Blanc. You can see Monte Rosa and come very close to the base of Matterhorn. You can drink Italian coffee at the petrol stops and enjoy eating the best ice cream in the city of Aosta. Through Aosta Valley, you can access the vein to the heart of Gran Paradiso, the only 4000-meter peak entirely within Italian territory. That’s where we went. Climbing the Gran Paradiso was our plan for 2018. Sharp as a knife when you see it from below, it increases your adrenaline and forces you to breathe deeply.

After we ate our ice cream in the city of Aosta, also known as Rome of the Alps, we moved to the Gran Paradiso National Park. Aosta Valley is, obviously, an alpine valley. That means that rain is quite often here, and this time, as we drove towards the national park, we didn’t escape the possibility of a rain shower. It was raining so hard that we needed to stop driving and wait for the cloud, as big as the Alps, to pass. Sitting in the car, listening to, for me, the best radio ever —Valle d'Aosta— gives us unique pleasure. After some time, the rain didn’t stop, but it lowered its intensity, allowing us to drive very slowly and carefully. Driving a mountain pass in the Alps is challenging, especially when the rain makes you feel like you are in the sea and the car is a ship.

Looking at the old houses, with their terraces full of flowers, makes me want to live there. Whenever I go to the Alps, I get the same conclusion, “Oh, I can live here for about 5-6 centuries”. Finally, the rain stopped, and the sky was clear, having only one colour, blue. Vittorio Emanuele declared this place, nowadays the Gran Paradiso National Park, as the Royal Hunting Reserve in 1856. His son didn’t succeed in establishing this region as a national park, but his grandson did and declared this region as Gran Paradiso National Park in 1922.

It started raining again while we were waiting for the woman to see if there were available spots for our tent in the camp. “Here she is. Let’s go fat ass, makes us happy,” said Bonev. She was, indeed, pretty fat but still running fast through the rain from the cabin to our car and back, bringing us good news, hopefully. “Here, there is no available spot, but the camp next to us has free space. They are waiting for you”. At the other camp, we were lucky to find free cabins and not only an empty grass for our tent. Nothing is happening without a reason. We got our stuff inside, ate something and went dirking coffee and catch some internet connection. We made it all before the sun went down, now, on the clear sky.

“Boom!” The door of that car woke up the entire camp when Bonev, my friend, closed it. It was, as usual, 04 AM, and we were going to climb Gran Paradiso. After a short drive, we parked our car in the huge parking lot right next to a pretty nice old restaurant. From there, some people go to the mountain hut Vittorio Emanuele, and the next day to the summit, and some people, like us, go to the mountain hut, to the summit and back on the same day. At a rapid pace, we climbed the steep forest up to the hut, passing some old wooden bridges and slippery rocks. It was still dark when we arrived at the hut, and here, the way up to the summit is hard to spot, especially if you are there for the first time. There are markations in the form of stone towers, but someone thought it was a game and made thousands of them. Right, left, right, right, left, left, right, up, down, right… We were going in the circle until the sun showed us the path. Finally, we are on the glacier. A steep glacier that led you to the summit. I saw my watch and checked the time, “Only 3 hours moving,” I asked, and because I was alone at that moment, no one replied to me. A few steps before the summit, technical climbing is involved. Nothing too serious, but still, quite exposed. There are bolts, I saw, for parties to secure themselves and for clients to feel safe. As I didn’t have anything, I climbed like that and went to the summit. I think I was the first on the summit that day. Make some pictures with Mary, a statue that stands on the summit, and wait for my friends to come.

Gran Paradiso is a perfect mountain to climb for acclimatisation if you want to go much higher. It is a non-technical mountain, and the uphill is easy. The nature here is amazing, making you live with an open mouth all the time. Waterfalls, big mountain peaks, forests, big boulder rocks in the valleys, it's just beautiful. Happy to be back here and enjoy this calm place, very far from the urban environment and very close to what makes me feel alive and happy.