The Fort of Exilles

Exilles feels very French but it's in the province of Turin.......once it was French..... here stands a fort to shout about, enormous, huge, famous and open to visitors. Easy to find and well signposted on the state road linking Susa to Oulx, not far from the Montgenèvre motorway, and all immersed in the verdant Turin Susa Valley... The fort is visible from metres away, from the road; you park comfortably below the fort, free of charge, and on foot you go up to the fort's entrance. The construction leaves you amazed at its majesty, an unequalled imposingness..... it rises in all its height, complexity and strength at the top of the mountain and from above dominates the valley.

At the entrance, with 6 euros each you go in, you have access to almost the whole fort, museum exhibition rooms, shop, and 2 guided tours that leave every 30 minutes from the main courtyard, the one of the cavalier, one of the attic and one of the underground passages (the one we chose). Currently being restored. The fort is well kept and a bit complex in its features, angular, particular. At first with the defence facing towards Italy (in its French period), now with the defence facing towards France, since it became Italian.... the Savoys have a hand in it here too, important royal figures who here too command, do, undo, create and destroy... their coats of arms are carved everywhere in the fort, whose peculiarity (I'd say unique) is one side with very tall walls like a ship's prow.

I'm not crazy about historic sites devoted to war.....but I must say the visit is interesting and pleasant; a fairly large group forms (not too beneficial), then off we go on the tour. Ours was at 12:30, a very lunchtime hour........in fact on leaving the fort at 14:00 we could no longer find a restaurant that would give us food......(they keep their own hours up in the mountains....) We set off for the tour of the underground passages; the guide is a young guy; the young man explains where the audio guide doesn't...... in some places in fact the visit is explained by an audio guide that you listen to while observing a particular spot. The visit is interesting, excellent for anyone who drools over talk of history and war... At the end, after seeing prisons, stables, gardens, gun emplacements etc....

we return to the cavalier's courtyard, where some exhibition areas devoted to the local mountain give a good idea of the mountain passes, the valley and times gone by. In the little souvenir shop there isn't much choice but those who are content are happy, right? at 14:00 we go down the steep master's descent and, hungry, with 50 more photos to our credit..... we go in search of a trattoria that...we'll never find. The construction is complex but spartan; mostly you visit it alone and freely and it has interesting spaces. Due to restoration work some areas were inaccessible or couldn't be photographed. A recommended visit.