Marta's Monterosa Blog

I am passionate about the Alps. They are my heart's home and the place where I would like to spend the last day of my life. I have been a tourist in the village of Champoluc in the Italian Monterosa for all my life and worked as a tourist operator in this area since more than 15 years.

I believe in respect for the special environment of this place that you can find only here. We all gain by enjoying its beauty, while trying to make a minimum impact at the same time. Leave it for our children in the future!

I believe in respect for people who live here with their traditions and culture, language, and work, their genuine products and delicious wines. They open their homes for us, tourists and meet us as their guests, if we are able to open our hearts for them. I have a friend who is a hotel owner and he says that when stressed people from the city come to his place, he tells them to sit down and take a drink before they even begin to worry if they have a room. Perhaps, we can bring a little of their kindness and calmness with us on our way back to the city.

My philosophy is to give back a little of what the mountains and the people from this place have given to me and to my family through my work, to communicate my philosophy and my passion to those who follow me on the blog, and in my trips as a tour operator.

If you would like to visit Champoluc, Gressoney, Alagna or other villages in the Aosta Valley, trek or ski in the Monterosa, discover Sardinia or other places we offer, contact us.

Posted: Mar 26, 2020

From inside the barricades – Report from a tourist operator in the times of Covid19

To start with – I want to tell you the story of my first travel to Algeria in the ancient 1980. As a guest, the family of our Algerian contact, Ahmed, invited me to learn making cuscus together with the other women of his house. Well entered their simple but nice place, in a village not so far from Alger, we cooking-people should clean our hands at the spring in the middle of the open courtyard. Women around me, I grabbed the soap first of all, washed my hands, and passed the soap to my neighbor. With a gentle face, all women around me laughed loud and, first thing first, showed me how to wash my hands. I felt a sort of shame for my European lack of civilization. Their hand-washing ritual took at least a couple of minutes per person and you can say was THOROUGH. Much like the way we are told by institutions and doctors to wash our hands in these days of Covid19.
Posted: Mar 22, 2020

Today it is the last day in quarantine for me

In the family we have decided to hold a kind of “distanced socialization”, where our encounters will be either on the internet (thank you God we have the web today!) or mostly outdoor. Even Easter celebration is planned that way: in the woods, with a thermos and a sandwich each. Could be cool!
Posted: Mar 15, 2020

In Italy people have found new ways of socializing

Yesterday I got this strange video from my friend Enzo in Milan. He is a doctor and works as usual at the biggest hospital in the city. His wife and their daughter are, as many other who can afford it, at their second home in the mountains - the daughter is also a doctor and she is pregnant, so it is not good for her to be in a hospital working these days. Anyway, in Italy people have found new ways of socializing: aperitivo by video conference, playing opera on the balcony, or simply putting a flag outside all windows of your house. To keep strong and together, because you are strong together in Italy.
Posted: Mar 14, 2020

I am on quarantine in my mother in law's country house

I was too tired upset and lonely yesterday to write my promised daily blog. I am so near my home and yet I must stay here for my own mental welfare and to be able to look in other people’s eyes.
Posted: Mar 12, 2020

This is new and I don’t have a well-formulated answer. Yet.

We buy a flight without money, we eat tomatoes in January in Sweden. Everything is possible all the time. And fast. We are so used to this way of living that it is not even anything we reason about: how is it possible? Is it ok? How comes? Who is paying?
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