In reply to chester giles:
I live in Briancon in the Haute-Alps and I can drive into Italy in less than 20 minutes.
There are some great mountain passes here with many medieval fortresses sitting atop of them. Most you can climb inside and explore the underground tunnels. Coming from Italy you would pass or even walk up the Mont Chaberton 3131 meters which is half in Italy and half in France. Atop is a fortress built by Mussolini to fire on The French during World war 2. The mountains are spectacular here. The treacherous rivers are azure blue all through the summer. You may well see wolves, wild bore and many golden eagles. Oh and the climbing is spectacular.
You would need to fly to Turin in Italy and get a train to Oulx.