Courmayeur, Courmayeur

The historic mountain town of Courmayeur sits on the Italian side of Mont Blanc, western Europe's highest mountain. The mountain scenery around Courmayeur is spectacular, with 14 4,000m plus mountain peaks above. The resort is one of several internationally famous centres in the Aosta Valley which runs up Italy's north west border with France and Switzerland. Unlike Chamonix, Courmayeur is a very atmospheric resort where ancient buildings huddle around cobbled streets so that the whole place oozes traditional charm. Planners have allowed a few ugly concrete blocks to appear (some of them four star hotels!) but these are on the outskirts of the town and don't detract from the ambience of the whole.Courmayeur can boast three centuries of tourism, far exceeding its long history as a winter sports destination, with visitors originally coming to experience the benefits of local mineral springs. The clientele has always included the great and the good, including the Italian Queen Margaret of Savoy who was such a valued customer that the owner of the Royal Hotel in the village built a special annex for her visit in 1880, named The Queen's Pavillion. There are other well known resorts in the area, such as Cervinia, lift-linked to Zermatt in Switerland, Pila and La Thuile (also lift-linked over a border, this time to La Rosière in France), all sharing an Aosta Valley joint lift ticket (your own transport a big advantage in making use of it).