Day 16 – Sunshine again: Gorizia Brda to Sezena

Looking down on our medieval village

The previous day we were so cold and wet we did not look around the village. Our room was in a renovated house that had stood there for a few hundred years. I found a notice board which showed the renovation that had occurred there over the past few years to resurrect a tumbling down village. For me it was nice to sample what it might be like to live in such a place. However, I would find it too dark and confined to live in such a place long term.

At breakfast we met the owner (a lovely woman) of the boutique hotel. Graham said how grateful we were for her colleague/boyfriend helping us into our accommodation the previous night and what a nice young man he was. She smiled sweetly and said, “ he is not my boyfriend as he is too young for me. How old do you think I am?

Graham responded, “Between 25 and 30”.

She laughed and said, “I am a fifty year old woman with 4 children and a husband. I don’t think he would be interested!”

We had thought she was a waitress and not the owner. She consented, with a smile, to having a photo taken with us all.

Our lovely hostess

I then wandered around the pretty village taking photos to try to get a sense of it. The village is in the middle of the Slovenian wine growing area and near the border with Italy. The wines from this area are predominately white.

The vineyards near the village.

It was sunny but not that warm when we set off for our penultimate destination. We were on local roads for the most part which were quite quiet. We crossed the border into Italy. Soon after as we were climbing up a hill into a small town and I noticed there were names written on the road suggesting that the Giro d’Italia had been through this area. Sure enough, there was a mural on a wall as we were leaving paying homage to the Giro. (The Giro d’Italia is a professional road race that is held every year in Italy and is often seen as a build up to the Tour de France).

It was May day this day and a public holiday. It was very quiet in the village. We were told that we would see lots of piles of wood around the area as they have bonfires that night. Apparently, another tradition is for the young men to cut down a tree and bring to the bonfire and it is placed upright in the middle of the bonfire. These are very much community activities and it was indicated that as foreigners we may not be all that welcome.

Ready for a bonfire

Our next place of significance was Gorizia in Italy. This area had been part of the Austro-Hungarian empire and Slovenia came into existence as a separate entity after WW1 but then it became part of Germany during WW2. It became part of Italy after negotiations with Tito and Italy as it had many Italian speakers. We stopped for a coffee and then found our way to a rather large and beautiful piazza dominated by a rather attractive white church.

The church in Gorizia in the piazza

We had to follow our noses to get out of Gorizia as the route we had been given wasn’t available. We crossed a border marked by a plaque in the road and sculpture of people waving. On the other side of the border is Novo Gorica or new Gorizia. We found a nice place to have our picnic almost sitting on the border.

Leaving Gorizia - this sculpture by the border

We continued along a cycleway for a few kilometres and then had to go onto a main highway for a while. Then it was back onto some small country roads until we reached a little village where we stopped briefly for coffee . On the hill above the village was an old castle Rihemberk Castle which looked like it was unused but it did have a Slovenian flag flying so I assume it must be used in some way.

Rihemberk Castle

We then had a two kilometre climb where we encountered yet another castle at the top of climb at the village of Stanjel. This one had been clearly been restored and apparently had a Ferrari garden. We could have paid our money and gone through it but we had seen enough castles so that was not on the agenda.

Castle at Stanjel

The rest of the ride was on undulating hills amongst vineyards and more conventional farming. It was the karst region where there are a number of caves. We didn’t see any on our route. The vineyard trellising system was very interesting (see photo) but I am not sure how well I captured what I could see. We noted that a very large area of old grape vines had been pulled out. Perhaps a result of the downturn in people drinking wine and alcohol in general.

The unusual trellising system

Finally we arrived at our hotel Senac which was just like any other 2-3* hotel I’ve been in. It was a little pretentious. There was no other eating places to eat at so we ate there. The food was overpriced and not that interesting. More pizza and schnitzel!