Aosta Events

The Fiera di Sant'Orso

On 30 and 31 January the whole centre becomes a craft fair, with well over a thousand exhibitors showing carved wood, soapstone, iron and woollen cloth made in the valley through the winter. It is documented back a thousand years, it runs through the night, and it is the one date in the Aosta Valley calendar that everybody knows. The city is completely full.

Bataille des Reines

Through spring and summer, the valley holds cow-fighting contests in which heifers of the local breed push against each other for herd rank, ending in a regional final in October. No animal is harmed and the whole valley turns out.

Summer in the mountains

From June the side valleys run their own calendar of alpine feasts, patronal days and mountain races, including some of the harder ultra-distance events in Europe.

The Veillé

Winter evenings of music and storytelling in patois, held in villages rather than in the city, and a genuine survival rather than a revival.

Sant'Orso in summer

A smaller summer edition of the craft fair is held in August, easier to move through than the January one and with the same makers behind the tables.

Carnival in the villages

The upper valleys keep their own carnivals — the landzette of the Coumba Freida, costumed figures said to parody Napoleon's troops crossing the Great St Bernard in 1800 — which are among the oddest and most local things in the western Alps.

Markets

The city market runs twice a week and is where the valley's cheese and cured meat actually change hands.