Day 17: Contovello (Prosecco) Italy to Lipica Slovenia

Day 15 on the Alpe Adria Trail

Only two days of walking left, and then we’re off to Croatia!

We had a great stay in the ancient house in Contovello, though we’ve become a bit spoiled by our homemade breakfasts. This morning, we had to fend for ourselves—but some feta, olives, and prosciutto tided us over.

Similar to yesterday, the trail this morning led us along cliffs high above the Adriatic.

The little settlement on the left is Contovello, where we stayed last night.

The path, carved into limestone cliffs in the early 1800s, is beautifully maintained as a community walking trail, overlooking the city of Trieste. Our path will lead us back to this area in a couple of days .

The trail eventually cut inland about 10 miles to the town of Lipica, Slovenia.

Along the way, we stopped for lunch at the first café we found. Bob zeroed in on a burger—an Oktoberfest-style pork patty topped with fried cheese, caramelized onions, and… tartar sauce? It was a beast!

Before reaching Lipica, the trail passed through a nature preserve, where we learned about Slovenia’s reforestation efforts.

By mid-afternoon, we reached Lipica and checked into the only hotel in town (actually, it’s the first typical hotel we’ve stayed at on this trip).

Lipica is famous for its stud farm, home to the Lipizzan horses. This breed originated here in the 1500s, and its history is fascinating—complicated by both world wars. Disney even made a film in the 1960s about the rescue of the Lipizzan horses by U.S. troops during World War II. (IMDB: Miracle of the White Stallions)

We heard that if we walked down the road from our hotel, we might see some of the renowned horses out to pasture.

Sure enough, we were able to watch about 50 of them grazing and socializing with their handler.

We spent the evening having drinks and dinner with our trail friends from Germany before calling it a night.

Tomorrow we start a winding path back towards the coast into Italy.

Good night from Slovenia!

Jen & Bob