Day 18: Lipica Slovenia to Bagnoli Della Rosandro Italy

We had a comfortable stay in Lipica. The hotel was a bit posh and heavy on the horse theme, but very comfortable. According to our trail book, the Lipizzan Stud Farm is one of the most visited locations in all of Slovenia.

Day 16 on the Alpe Adria Trail! Only one long day left after today.

We were lucky again this morning to catch a glimpse of the Lipizzan horses as we left. Such beautiful creatures.

We left Lipica and climbed steeply through a beautiful mossy forest. It was an exhausting start to the day, and we were happy when it was over.

In general, Slovenians speak great English, but today a miscommunication worked in our favor—leading to an abundance of pastries! At the top of our morning’s climb, we stopped at a snack hut for cappuccinos. The server offered a traditional Slovenian strudel with a choice of toppings: cream cheese, fresh preserves, or nuts. When we couldn’t decide, she unexpectedly brought us all three!

These were hefty pastries, but luckily our trail friends from Stuttgart were happy to help us finish them.

We were not expecting such a gorgeous trail today. After our sugar buzz, we descended through a limestone gorge with tall scrubby trees.

We spent some time on a rail-to-trail path that took us through a couple of old train tunnels. It’s the weekend, and the trail was packed with mountain bikers and day hikers.

We had a chance to offer first aid to a group of German bicyclists (without helmets). One of the women took a fall, was scraped up and bleeding. Our gauze and bandages came in helpful.

While still in Slovenia, we passed through a tiny community and heard polka music coming from a house. As we got closer, we saw a young teenager playing an accordion for some other kids in a backyard. We read that Slovenia is the self proclaimed polka capital of the world. Bob is curious how Poland feels about this pronouncement. Here’s a very short clip of his performance:

As we crossed back into Italy for the last time, saw a sign about wild goats and falling rocks, and kept an eye out for both.

We were thrilled when we caught a glimpse of the gravity defying goats walking along a rocky slope cross the gorge. Here’s a short video of a wild buck:

We passed below a church perched on the limestone cliffs that was first mentioned in the 1200’s. We were tempted to take the steep trail up to see it up close, but our weary toes begged us to carry on (also there were dark clouds looming).

Within a mile of our stop for the night, we noticed that our trail was following a small stone culvert which happens to be a Roman aqueduct from the 1st century A.D. and it runs IMMEDIATELY BELOW OUR APARTMENT!

The builders were nice enough to put a floor window into the foundation so we could see the 2000 year old aqueduct below our apartment!

Our very comfortable apartment is in the tiny village of Bagnoli Della Rosandra, in the foothills above Trieste. We were lucky! Within minutes of arriving, the rain began to pour.

Bagnoli is a hopping little town with two packed taverns and one fancy restaurant. We sampled both taverns, but settled into the more charming of the two.

It’s interesting…We’ve encountered two older taverns during our time in Italy where it almost feels like a gentleman wine club. 90% elderly male, mostly drinking white wine, not much food ordering, lots of camaraderie. We’ll have to dig into this more later, but let’s talk about the food.

The food in these taverns is divine! Tonight we had a rich meaty goulash with polenta and a truffle pizza with aged ham. Great food and the ambience cannot be matched!

Bob’s attempted photo bomb of my food pic earned him some chuckles and a thumbs up from the couple at the next table. Such a goof!

Another great day of wilderness, food and culture on the Alpe Adria Trail!

More to come tomorrow!

Jen & Bob