A cold snap hit northwestern Italy on Friday with snowfalls blocking several roads in Liguria and causing the partial closure of the port of Genoa.
Snowdrifts halted traffic for two hours on a minor rail line from Piedmont to southern France while a ''moderate'' avalanche alert was sounded in Val d'Aosta.
There will be ''marked'' risk of avalanches in the central and northwestern Alps on Saturday, authorities said.
Meanwhile it emerged that a homeless Indian man died of exposure in a Florence station on December 29.
Social workers said he had refused a bed for the night.
