Road station
In Alpe Graia
Col du Petit-St-Bernard
In Alpe Graia marks the pass of the Little Saint Bernard, the gateway from the Tarentaise into the valley of Aosta. On the summit stands an ancient column, the Colonne de Joux, and just north of it a ring of twenty-nine rough standing stones, cut through lengthwise by the road and long called Hannibal's circus. Ancient writers linked the name Graian with Greeks and with Hercules, and the poet Petronius speaks of a place sacred to the altars of Hercules up here. An early Roman historian, quoted by the Roman historian Livy, even made Hannibal cross by this pass.