Imagine a huge meadow that ends up with a mountain that has a V shape. So is Cogne, the San Orso fields and the beautiful chain of the Gran Paradiso. There is snow in every season and, besides the name of some glaciers and some peaks that can seem scary, its shape is cosy and it inspires at the same time power and grace. The most important village is Cogne but for the alpinists Valnontey is most beloved : we are here right at the feet of the Gran Paradiso. If you come off season you will meet plenty of different wild animals: the steinbock, our undoubted king, the chamois, the marmot, the real eagle, beech-marten, the fox, the hare, the partridge and many others. We suggest you to come and visit Cogne in June and September when the silence is still deep and the nature has completely woken up. For the winter lovers February and March are probably the best sunny months. Hoping to meet you soon here we say goodbye to you and we wish you have enjoyed our site.

"My dear friend Antonio, think at this and watch with courage in front of you: the moon that has enlighten with its magic radiance our night paths on the ice, and the sun that has lit up for us the fire of unforgettable dawns on rocky peaks; they are waiting faithfully for you to fill up your heart of great beautiful things and to tell you: life goes on, it has to goes on!"
Piero Cammelli 1984 - from the journal of Antonio Guichardaz

"To understand that animals are essentially not different from us we have to be really initiated, as they say. Here we are not speaking of a rational intelligence but also of sensitivity. Wisdom has mysterious ways that not always come trough reason. I think that wisdom comes from some place different from logic and rationality. The antennas of the mystic are different from those of a scientist."
[ ... ] I love just one type of hunting, that of the ideas. To walk among these mountains, to gaze now at the stainbock now at the stone, at the trees and at the grass, at the river or at the peaks, at what is infinite as the sky or at what is small as the insect: all trains the mind and often fills up the spirit. And if the insect is more eloquent than the book I close the book and I observe the insect."
Anacleto Verrecchia Diario del Gran Paradiso ed. Fogola "La torre d'avorio" 1997