ITALY PART 1 -TRAVELBLOG- Aosta Valley, Fénis Castle

This summer i've been to Italy, my favourite in Europe, a good reason to write some blogs about this amazing country!

Last june i visited the Aosta Valley and it really amazed me, i mainly went there to hike in the beautiful Alps but it has so much more to offer. This valley is also called: The valley of 100 castles, im not sure if its really 100 but its just amazing onlydriving true it! On every hill or cliff you see either a beautiful castle or atleast the ruins of it, it clearly shows how important this region was.

The first inhabitants were Celts and Ligures, captured by Rome 25BC to secure the strategic mountain passes, and they went on to build bridges, strongholds and roads through the mountains.

Fenis castle was one of them, probably my favourite, its not that big but very well restored.

This castle was first mentioned in 1242, most likely it was just a simple keep surrounded by walls back then but slowly evolved to its current "looks"around the 14th century.

In the beginning of the 18th century the castle was in a state of abandon and after changing owner many times it turned in to a farmhouse! The chapel being used as a haybarn, the other rooms stripped of their Original furnishings had become stables or granaries…!

In 1895, Alfredo d Andrade bougth the castle, this architect restored it and donated it to the state in 1906.

Inside the castle you find old furniture, its more a collection and not the Original furniture but gives a nice impression of how things would have looked like back then.

The courtyard is beautiful, the eyecatcher inside!

The wooden balconies (loggiato in italian) are stunning and the fresco's make it compleet.

Most rooms have a fire place but on the ground floor one of the rooms had a huuge one, the chimney goes all the way up in the center of the castle, warming up most of it. You could call it central heatning!

Here you see my girlfriend standing in the fire place, although she isnt that tall, you can imagine how big this fireplace was :-)

This fireplace was probably the room of justice, you can clearly see the scales of justice in the fresco.

In the chapel you can see a statue of Christ, its probably the Original one since its very old.

If you ever visit this region of Italy, visit some of its castles, they are beautiful! I will write blogs about a few more in the coming weeks!

Hope you enjoyed this blog and i hope the pictures are good enough, i forgot to bring my camera this day and used my iPhone …:-/

Thank you very much for reading!