The road, 2,188 metres above sea level, was cleared of 7 metres of snow using turbine blades.
ADVERTISEMENTThe Little St Bernard Pass linking Italy to France on Thursday reopened to traffic after the winter season.
The road – 2,188 metres above sea level – was cleared on either side of seven metres of snow using turbine blades, which met at the border.
The reopening of what the Italians call Piccolo San Bernardo and the French call Col du Petit Saint-Bernard was celebrated, as it is every year, by locals from both countries, who gathered to watch the demolition of the final snow wall.
Road signs which had been stored over the winter season to avoid avalanche damage were also reinstalled.
The reopening of the crossing of the Gran San Bernardo pass, between Italy and Switzerland, has been scheduled for the first week of June.