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The Upper Maurienne Valley from the top of the Guy Favre via ferrata

The Maurienne valley in the Savoy region was well known to European travellers; for millennia it was the main route from north-western Europe to the cultural centres of Italy. The English Romantic landscape artist JMW Turner was sufficiently inspired by his crossing of the Col du Mont Cenis to record the experience in a masterpiece, ‘The Passage of Mont Cenis’ (1820). The valley is also one of those believed to be central to the most famous of Alpine journeys, Hannibal's crossing of the Alps. His supposed route into Italy is now a pleasant half-day's walk to a far-reaching viewpoint. The valley also once formed the main route from Lyon to Milan and was part of the Spice Road between these two important cities – the village of Termignon had a chapel dedicated to Notre Dame de Poivre (Our Lady of the Pepper).

The French–Italian border in this area has shifted many times and there are nearly 30 fortresses in the valley, evidence of the many border conflicts. (Today, the Victor Emmanuel Fort Complex forms the focus of a series of breathtaking via ferratas described in this book.) In 1805 Napoleon Bonaparte ordered the construction of a road from the valley to aid his invasion of Italy. Throughout the mid-1800s the Dukes of Savoy fought long and hard here to maintain their sovereignty, as Savoy was a contested region between France and the Kingdom of Italy, under Victor Emmanuel.