Part 1 is in the previous post.
After exploring the theater we moved on to the Cryptoporticus. I wasn't sure what to expect of this except that it would be underground. We passed by a wooden door in a wall, a side entrance into Aosta's cathedral that leads to the "Treasure Museum" kept inside; the sign there informed us that the cathedral and its treasure museum would not re-open until three. (Lots of things in this region close for two or three hours around lunchtime.) We walked around the corner of the church to the façade, which was Neoclassical -- pillars and a pediment -- but which framed a porch that was ornately bedecked with painting and statuary. The porch and façade were set at an angle to the rest of the building, giving it a crane-necked appearance.
A little garden on the other side of the church hosted signs directing us to the cryptoporticus. It was a charming little French-style garden with a graceful spreading tree in the center, red flowers and shrubbery, and a circular path of crunchy, dark-gray pea gravel, and a few benches. The four year old promptly started to run in circles around the path. But the 14yo was already starting down the stairs in the back of the garden, down to the Cryptoporticus. I followed.
Down below: an arcade. It wrapped around the corner and continued much farther than I expected -- a vast double hallway. The younger children immediately began to race back and forth among the columns. I could not think of a reason why I should hush them and yet I felt the impulse to call them back. The air had a stale scent, the up-lighting cast a creepy glow, and the ancient concrete seemed to swallow up their laughter.
The 14yo had found a brochure that explained the structure and gave a map of the original layout showing the extant parts in red. The cryptoporticus was around the Forum of Augusta Praetoria. French Wikipedia tells me it originally formed a rectangle, 89 meters long by 73 meters wide, and that two temples were situated atop the area it surrounded.
These arches being fairly low and accessoble, it was a good place to examine their construction, and ask the 8yo to find the keystone of the arch.
Back outside, I nursed the baby in the garden while we let the 4yo run in circles and waited for the cathedral to open. Then at three we went in.
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The Aosta cathedral turned out to be totally worth the trip. You can't get enough information from the English Wikipedia page, but the French one is sufficiently detailed.
Aosta had quite an early Christian community. There has been a significant Christian building there going back at least as far as the 4th century -- by then, it was 40 meters long and had two baptistries and several annexes -- and before that there was an even older building backed right up against the cryptoporticus. In the 11th century, the bishop St. Anselm likely was the one who called for a new church. It was built in a nordic style and frescoed. Successive centuries added their mark: marvelous floor mosaics date to the 13th century, gothic choir stalls to the 15th, stained glass windows and the frescoes in the portico to the 16th, an altar in the 18th, the façade in the 19th, and most recently, the organ.
Bishop's tomb in the undercroft:
Undercroft, including repurposed Roman columns:
Ceiling frescoes:
We finished up with ice cream. If we'd had more time and fewer tired children, there would have been castles to see, too; there are eight or ten castles from various periods scattered around the region. But by then we were exhausted, so instead headed back to France.
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