Rock gardens

Part of the trail to the Lillaz waterfalls is an “accessible” path leading to the bottom of the first leap. Also right for the disabled, particularly those with moving difficulties and blind people.

The first section of the trail also includes a geological park that shows a logical sequence of large blocks of rock explaining the geological structure of the Cogne valley.

The geological trail is equipped for the blind with explanatory panels in Braille.

The “Le pietre del Lys” (the stones of the Lys) geological trail is situated in Fontainemore, in the valley basin, just a stone’s throw from the town, near the Niana green area.

The feature, which is a didactic trail amid large rocky masses that illustrate the main geological events which took place in the Lys Valley, has both recreational and educational functions, making it suitable for adult visitors and children alike. The sequence of rocks accompanies visitors along a journey in the imagination which, from the Valley of the Dora Baltea river goes as far as the Monte Rosa massif. The lithologies shown belong the the geological systems of the Vallaise: Austrian-Alpine system, Piedmont area, Pennidic system. The masses, of which there are a dozen gathered together in stations, mainly come from detritus deposits, stone quarries, stone landfills and banks of river beds. They come in different sizes (on average volumes in the range of 1 cubic metre) and curious rounded or smoothed shapes due to the fluvial or glacial action or sharp edges, deriving from the quarry extraction or collapses.

Along the trail, visitors will find exhaustive panels featuring the main characteristics of the different rocks.

A playgroud is also present with flying fox, roundabouts, a football field with goals, a drinking fountain and toilets (also for disabled people) and a wide green area with a small lake.

The modern construction which houses the Grand Place multifunction centre is surrounded on 3 sides by a tree park, founded in 1994, and host to a considerable number of tall forest trees, including two specimens of Ginkgo Biloba (a “living fossil” and sole survivor of a group of plants that were prolific in the Mesozoic Era) .

Since 1998 the park has hosted a series of rocks representing the main types of specimens found in the mountains of the Aosta Valley region, arranged in a sequence based on geological and geographical origin.

Each mass is accompanied by a descriptive panel featuring the name of the rock, the metamorphic environment in which it was formed, the geological unit it belongs to, its mineral composition, a few notes on the specific characteristics of each specimen and the geographic zone of origin.