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Aosta is the principal city of the bilingual Aosta Valley in the Italian Alps, 110km north-northwest of Turin. It is situated near the Italian entrance of the Mont Blanc Tunnel, at the confluence of the Buthier and the Dora Baltea, and at the junction of the Great and Little St. Bernard routes. Aosta is not the capital of the province, as these functions are shared by the region and the communes.

Under the House of Savoy, Aosta was granted a special status that it maintained when the new Italian Republic was proclaimed in 1948.

The main monuments of the city include the Arch of Augustus, erected in 35 BC to celebrate the victory of the Roman troops led by consul Varro Murene over the local Salassi; the Porta Praetoria (1st century AD), once the eastern gate to the city, which has preserved its original forms apart from the marble covering. It is formed by two series of arches enclosing a small square; and the Roman theatre, of which the southern façade remains today.