– rugged alpine beauty and rolling vineyards –
This was going to be a more relaxed weekend away than the last two, as it was a driving holiday and we had a whole three days. The last few weekends were pretty full on and we were all three of us looking forward to a bit of down time.
We picked up our car on Thursday night from Munich Central Station and made the usual fraught and hectic exit from the city, taking about 4 hours to drive to Tarvisio, which is an Italian town wedged right on the border between Italy, Austria and Slovenia. This is home territory for me as my family originates from the little known or understood region of Friuli Venezia-Giulia wedged into the top right hand corner of Italy. It’s not Italy as most people would know it – it’s been influenced by a range of cultures over its long, violent and impoverished history – Romans, Turks, Venetians and Austrians being the most notable. The influences on its culture, traditions and food are widely varied. But it’s beautiful – in some cases, dark and forebodingly beautiful. Anyway, I digress..
None of us had stayed in an Alpine-style traditional hotel before. I have to admit, I’ve always thought they look a bit old-fashioned and dingy. But we were pleasantly surprised. Hotel Edelhof was delightful. It really felt comfy and cosy, and was beautifully designed with raw timber interiors. The delicate and very detailed carving on the ceiling beams showed a lot of love and care had gone into making this a special hotel. And the view was typically “alpine” – it was just a little out of the centre of town.
After a comfortable night’s sleep and a very good breakfast, we headed off in the morning for a day’s drive around the easternmost edge of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, with the aim of arriving at our house in Slovenia by late afternoon. First stop was the Laghi di Fusine – two lakes situated one above the other – a few kilometres east of Tarvisio.
It was a picture-postcard kind of place with a beautiful mountain backdrop and deep reflective green water. Here are some photos, though I can’t really do it justice:
We spent about an hour walking around the lake, and sitting just enjoying the peace. Lovely!
Our next stop was the village of Cividale del Friuli, where we planned to spend the rest of the day. We took the scenic route, which in retrospect may not have been one of my better ideas, as it wasn’t long before Calum was starting to feel car sick – which doesn’t take much at the best of times. In any event, we managed to get him all the way to Cividale without throwing up, and in the end it didn’t seem to have prevented him from launching into lunch!
We decided to go with a Lonely Planet recommendation and wandered into Osteria Leone d’Oro at Cividale. They were kind enough to prepare a table for us under the grape trellis in the courtyard and we settled down to nice regional meal.
A revelation to both the boys was a plate of frico – which is a local specialty of melted cheese mixed with white wine and spices and eaten with polenta. As you can see from the empty ramekin on the table it was wiped clean! Cal had the first of his “Slovenian-style” beef tartare dishes – as far as I can tell, what distinguishes it is the addition of slathers of butter to be eaten alongside each mouthful. We finished off the meal with some creamy home made ice-cream with a local berry compote – yum! A couple of hours later we rolled out of there, ready to work it all off with an afternoon’s walk around the town.
And a very pleasant town it is. There were only a handful of other tourists so we really felt that we had the place to ourselves. Cividale was once a grand town, playing the role of a regional centre for both the Romans and later, the Patriarch of Aquileia. It was also a Longobard stronghold from the mid-500’s. The townspeople have gone to a great deal of effort to preserve and restore the town centre, so you truly feel that you’re walking through layers of history – without the pretension of other places we’ve visited – there’s no “Disneyland” effect here.
One of the landmarks that the town is particularly proud of is the monastery, which houses the Tempietto Longobardo – a small chapel that houses the only surviving example of Longobard architecture and artwork. It’s a gem even without the wooden stalls which were undergoing renovation.
This Church and Cividale generally hold a particularly central place in the history of the region – in fact, this is where the name of Friuli was derived as the town was originally called “Forum de Lulii” after its founder Julius Caesar. I remember a sketch of the Monastery on a card I’ve seen in nonna’s collection – it was handed to nonno Beppi with a short poem inscribed on it as a reminder of his homeland when he migrated to Australia in the 1950’s.
That postcard is now yellowed, torn and ageing but is one of the most precious things in nonna’s collection.
We wandered about the town, checking out the second biggest attraction, the Ponte del Diavolo which crosses the Natisone River (which wasn’t looking too healthy on the day, being invaded by some kind of green algae).
And then we just wandered up and down a few quiet laneways, admiring the perfectly paved cobblestone streets and the care lavished on the medieval buildings.
After a relaxed coffee in the piazza, we decided to make our way to Smartno, which is a short 13 km over the border, but a lifetime away. Smartno is in the Grska Brda wine region of western Slovenia. I was a bit dubious about the claim in the guidebook that it was like a mini Tuscany – but you know what – it actually is! A lot less developed in a tourist sense, but so picturesque with its green rolling hills carpeted with vineyards. I think the tourism industry is in its infancy here and I’m confident that given a decade or so, things will be entirely different in terms of the number of visitors.
Our house had a wonderful view of the outlying hills (sadly, it’s location was its one best feature!) Here was the view from the veranda and a snapshot of the outside of the house. Beautiful!
The township of Smartno itself seems to have several nice accommodation options, and is clearly the main tourist town in the area. Here’s a shot of Smartno looking back from Medena – it’s the little hamlet on top of the hill.
Smartno is a tiny fortified village complete with a surrounding wall and 5 small towers. The streets and houses are beautifully maintained and it’s well worth a visit – especially the traditional house museum where they play a communist-era promotional film of the town. It’s entertaining and educational though probably not in the manner originally intended! We actually did a tour of the town and other outlying hamlets on the Sunday but in the interests of keeping this blog post nice and tidy I’m going to keep going…!
Here are some photos of Smartno. The chimney and lean-to you can see in the picture was apparently the latest in kitchen design in the 1800’s and a sign of the family’s wealth.
One of the the five turrets and part of the fortified wall around the town.
This is the village church which had a wonderful collection of modern religious artwork by a local painter – very interesting to see.
Here’s a photo from the house-museum of a traditional Slovenian kitchen – I’ve included it because of the similarity to the “fogolar” which is a traditional hearth in Friuli, where my family is from.
And images of some of the other places we visited. This is the bigger town of Kanal.
Dobrovo, the main town in the region, wasn’t all that interesting except for the cheesy cherry-face photo opportunity!
This was Naravni spomenik Krcnik – now that’s a mouthful…
It was talked up as an idyllic swimming hole, but to be frank the photo makes it look a whole lot better than it actually was – the water was stagnant, and none of us were volunteering to take a dip!
During the day we detoured to a place called Sabotin. We never really concluded whether this was in Italy or Slovenia as both countries seemed to claim it as their own. In any case, it was an important battlefront in the First World War and it was interesting to walk the trenches and explore the caves that had been excavated by the Italian Alpine Forces deep into the hills. Calum was especially excited when he emerged from one cave to a sheer drop several hundred metres below. I didn’t see it in quite the same way!
Notice how I kept the camera focused on the horizon in an effort not to look at the sheer drop below me!
The countryside itself was the main star of the show – it was relaxing and quite beautiful. A morning photo taken during our drive.
A late afternoon photo on our way to dinner in Medena.
Now having started upside down with Sunday first, let me turn to Saturday. This was spent visiting the Postojna Caves which are about 73km from Smartno. This is Disneyland on wheels. The cave system is about 24km long and a very efficient high tech train whisks you 4km into the cave where you are dropped off so that you can enjoy a one hour walk around a section of the cave. These caves are absolutely huge and the formations are jaw dropping. It’s a very easy excursion, though next time I plan on visiting the Skocjan Caves which are not that far away – I believe these might be less touristy as they’re a UNESCO world heritage sight – though apparently they require more effort to walk.
Here’s an advertising photo of the train as none of mine worked out. You get the idea..
And some photos of the caves, though once again none of my photos were great..
After the caves we went on to visit Predjama Castle – which sits perched up against a cliff edge and nestled into a cave. Dating back to the 15th century it must have been a miserably damp and cold home, but apparently it was impregnable – until the Austrians bombed it! It was also overrun by tourists but nice to visit.
That’s it for the sights. Turning to more important matters.
One thing that really defined the holiday was the food. If you like barbecued meat then this is the destination for you! Our first night we stumbled on a restaurant on the Italian side of the border, Osteria Korsic in San Floriano del Collio. It was a warm summery evening and we sat in the very pleasant garden and enjoyed a long languid meal of grilled meat, steak tartare (strictly for Calum) and salad as the sun set. It was really special.
The following night we drove to the nearby hamlet of Medena to eat at Klinec, which I had booked several months earlier. Another lovely meal – more upmarket than the previous night. More grilled meat, steak tartare and veggies, but more refined.
The third night we ate at Marica Restaurant in Smartno itself – you guessed it, more grilled meat, steak tartare… you know the drill. This time both boys had the tartare. Great atmosphere. Again good food.
As I’m not really a grilled meat aficionado, for me personally, the best meal was actually at Sabotin, where I enjoyed a very rustic bean soup similar to the one my mum makes – a real Friuli classic. But there was a twist. We would ordinarily flavour the soup with a special sausage which is then served separately with pickled turnip, “brovada”. But here the brovada was actually cooked into the soup. Interesting – I liked it!
Back at the house, the owner had a book of Slovenian recipes on the bookshelf. For the benefit of nonna and my sister, FrancaI’m reproducing some here – as they so closely resemble some of our traditional family recipes. There’s clearly been a strong cross-fertilisation of customs and food between this part of Slovenia and Friuli in Italy. For the rest of you, sorry if this is a bit boring – just read on!
Which brings me to the end of this post. Observations? Slovenia is really worth exploring. It’s so much more rustic than its flashy neighbour, Italy. And because there are so many fewer visitors, it makes the perfect relaxing getaway. I feel there’s a whole more to explore in this country and we’ll definitely return some day.
