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THE CASTEL OF ŠTANJEL (ITALIAN NAME: SAN DANIELE DEL CARSO), A PICTURESQUE TOWN AT THE TOP OF A HILL NOT TOO FAR FROM THE SLOVENIAN - ITALIAN BORDER. |
During this short but intense journey, I realised that in this borderzone there is plenty of rests, symbols and signs of the World War I and II, the Cold War, the cultural, economic and social legacy of Former Yugoslavia and the diplomatic agreements between our country and Yugoslavia, and I wasn’t aware of that before.
We rode 237 miles in two days, mostly mountain roads, seeing breathtaking landscapes and meeting nice people! I chose never ridden roads, as I usually do, and it was exhilarating! All roads were beautiful, some old, some other new, plus… some of them behold unexpected challenges, that we overcame brilliantly!
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A MOTOTRIP OF 383 KM IN 2 DAYS |
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THE CASTLE OF TRUSSIO, IN THE TOWN OF DOLEGNA DEL COLLIO, ALONG THE ITALIAN ROAD SP14, WHICH GOES ALONGSIDE THE BORDERLINE BETWEEN ITALY AND SLOVENIA |
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VENCÒ, DISTRICT OF DOLEGNA DEL COLLIO, THE LAST ITALIAN TOWN BEFORE PASSING THE BORDERLINE AT THIS POINT: GOING EAST, WE TAKE THE SLOVENIAN ROAD 402 AND THE NEXT TOWN IS NEBLO, ONCE BELONGING TO THE ITALIAN KINGDOM (AS A MILESTONE BUILT IN 1947, STANDING JUST BEFORE THE MODERN SIGNBOARD INDICATING "SLOVENIA", IS STILL TELLING TO THE VISITORS) |
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| THE NICE VILLAGE OF SV. MARTINA (ITALIAN NAM:E SAN MARTINO) HAS A CASTLE WITH A PANORAMIC VIEW OVER THE HILLS CULTIVATED WITH VINEYARDS |
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| WE JUST PASSED THROUGH THE ROAD OF OSIMO, AND TOOK THE SLOVENIAN ROAD 608, REACHING THE DISTRICT OF SOLKAN, LOOKING DIRECTION SOUTH: A VIEW OVER THE ISONZO RIVER (SLOVENIAN NAME: SOČA RIVER), WITH THE BRIDGES OVER IT WHICH CONNECT THE TWO TWIN CITIES OF GORIZIA (ITALY) AND NOVA GORICA (SLOVENIA). ON THE RIGHT, THE MOUNT SABOTIN |
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THE ROAD OF OSIMO
In November 1975, the Osimo Treaties resolved the border question between Italy and Yugoslavia – a troubled legacy of World War II. The Road of Osimo was a point included in these treaties, it was projected by a mixed team of Italian and Yugoslavian engineers and built between 1980 and 1985. This road connects the Slovenian towns of Solkan and Podsabotin, but it does so by crossing a stretch of Italian territory. Its total length is 3,159 km and it's entirely under the control of the Slovenian police, including the section of about 1.6 kilometers which is located in Italian territory.
To this road was given the number R2-402 in the official Slovenian naming system and for the Italian system this same road is called NSA 55. The Italian section of this road is a sort of corridor built in an entrenchment and features an enclosure 2 meters high along both sides, with gates handled by the Italian authorities; there are overpasses for the people who wants to walk to and from the Mount Sabotin. There are specific rules of behaviour to respect during the crossing of the corridor: you're supposed to transit only through it (you're not allowed to stop), military vehicles are not allowed and taking photographs is prohibited.
OUR EXPERIENCE OF THE ROAD OF OSIMO
This road is a sort of paradox and going through it gives one a weird sensation, since one can feel suddenly dislocated in space or time or both! In fact, we had just crossed the border to enter Slovenia, and yet after a few miles we were crossing a border again, thus founding ourselves in the Italian territory, and then, by proceeding just 1 mile further, we were crossing one more time another borderline to finally reach definitely the Slovenian territory.
THE MOUNT SABOTIN
The Mount Sabotin (609 meters a.s.l.) hosts a Peace Park, an open-air museum on the border between Italy and Slovenia. The itinerary is a great opportunity to discover the second Austro-Hungarian defensive line, conquered by the Second Italian Army on 06th August 1916, during the Sixth Battle of the Isonzo river.
Sabotin also hosts one monumental geoglyph with the name of TITO, its size is about 10 x 20 meters, it was built with white rocks on the 1980s on the Slovenian side of the mountain, but very very close to the borderline, so that it is clearly visible from the Italian side and especially from the city of Gorizia. During the years, the name disappeared, covered by vegetation, then it was changed, becoming NAS TITO (our TITO) and then SLO (=Slovenia), but nowadays is TITO again. The name on the mountain is not only referring to the name of the former Yugoslavian president Josip Broz Tito but also to a regime and an ideology. The Austrian artist Helene Thuemmel has studied and mapped geoglyphs of TITO, resulting in a fascinated exhibition titled "Where is Tito?". She discovered that these letterings are inscribed at several locations across different landscapes in most of the former Yugoslavian countries. She collected the actual coordinates of 25 of those memorials and visited 15 of them.
Josip Broz Tito (1892 – 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman, serving in various roles from 1943 until his death in 1980. During World War II he was the leader of the Partisans, often regarded as the most effective resistance movement in occupied Europe. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, and concerns about the repression of political opponents have been raised, Tito was ‘seen by most as a benevolent dictator’ due to his economic and diplomatic policies. He was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad. Viewed as a unifying symbol, his internal policies maintained the peaceful coexistence of the nations of the Yugoslav federation.
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| THE BEAUTIFUL AND SOOTHING ROAD 608 AMONG THE WOODS, SO IMMERSED IN SILENCE AND FRESHNESS THAT I HONESTLY WAS A LITTLE CONCERNED BOUT POSSIBLY MEET A BEAR! |
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| CURIOUS ARTISTIC PRIVATE HOUSE IN LOKVE, A PEACEFUL VILLAGE AT 1.000 METERS ELEVATION |
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| RESTING IN THE TOWN OF CEPOVAN, IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE MOST SURPRISING ADVENTURE OF THIS MOTOTRIP! THE SHADOW WE WERE ENJOYING BELONGED TO A VERY GENTLE MAN'S HOUSE, WHO SPOKE ITALIAN AND WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT US, SO THAT WE ENTERTAINED A LOVELY CONVERSATION TOGETHER AND AT THE END HE REASSURED US ABOUT THE FACT THAT THE ROADS WERE ALL PAVED FROM THAT POINT ON! IRONICALLY, WHILE WE WERE STANDING THERE, A TRUCK PASSED BY WITH THE SCRIPT "ASPHALT ARTWORKS - AT YOUR SERVICE" OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT |
Yes, because it happened that, descending from Lokve, we found ourselves on a downhill road with a 12% slope where, out of the blue, there was a signal reading END OF ASPHALT! 😳⚠️😱 After a moment of uncertainty, we decided to keep on going and it resulted 1,5 mile gravel and bumpy before arriving to the bottom where the asphalt started again! It was scary!!! But now I think about it and smile! 😃 You know, when planning my trips, I virtually go here and there with the “Street View” of Google Maps/Earth, to have a look of how the roads do appear but …I had dismissed that section 😅 so… surprise!!!
From Cepovan, we kept on going to Most na Soči, town that we already knew from previous mototrips, but that we reached this time through a different road. There we had our lunch and then we proceed following the road 102, which goes alongside the river Idrija, till the town of Sponja Idrija, where we crossed the river and took the road 610, to go up up to the mountain, in this inner part of the traditional region of Carniola, famous for its mercury mines and more!
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| ONE OF THE EIGHT HAIRPIN TURN OF THE SERPENTINE CONDUCING FROM THE TOWN OF SPODNJA IDRIJA AND ITS JEWEL DISTRICT: THE MINUSCULE AND RAREST GOVEJK, ABOUT 750 METERS A.S.L. |
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| OUR OASIS FOR THIS WEEKEND: THE B&B "NA KLUK" IN GOVEJK |
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| ENJOYING OUR FAVOURITE SLOVENIAN BEER |
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| ANOTHER VIEW OF THE B&B WHERE WE STAYED FOR THE NIGHT |
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| EXACTLY ON OUR STOP ON THE FIRST HAIRPIN BEND, WE SAW THE FIRST OF MANY MANY MANY TOMOS...! |
So, after drinking a refreshing beer and having a regenerating shower, in the evening we descended the other side of the mountain and within 5 kilometres reached the very interesting municipality of Žiri, where we had a typical dinner and learned a lot about the history of this area. We found out that the area we were exploring was full of milestones of an ancient borderline called the “Rapallo Border”, when, after WWI, in 1920 Italy extended its territory to East to include an entire region of the current Slovenian nation.
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| THE ITALIAN MILESTONE ON THE ROAD TO ŽIRI |
The Rapallo Border was established as a result of the Treaty of Rapallo that was signed on 12th November 1920 in the Italian town of Rapallo. The treaty required a third of the territory of Slovenia to be handed over to Italy. The effect on those living in the border areas was dramatic with neighbours, relatives and friends overnight becoming citizens of two separate kingdoms – the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia), and the Kingdom of Italy.The entire border was 244km in length and was divided in 70 sections. At the start of each section there was a main boundary stone, with smaller boundary stones in between. (EXCERPT FROM THE WEBSITE "ADELE IN SLOVENIA")
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| OUR DINNER AT THE "AMBASADA" RESTAURANT IN ŽIRI |
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VIEW OF THE MAIN STREET OF ŽIRI AT THE SUNSET  |
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| THE NEXT DAY, AFTER A NICE BREAKFAST AT OUR B&B, WE WENT BACK TO ŽIRI, WHERE WE STOP TO TANK, TO HAVE ONE MORE COFFEE AND TO RE-START OUR TRIP |
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| THE MAIN STREET OF ŽIRI DISPLAYS AN AWESOME COLLECTION OF INTERNATIONAL SIGNBOARDS, INDICATING THE DIRECTION AND DISTANCE FROM HERE TO A NUMBER OF CITIES OF ALL OVER THE WORLD |
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| ALONG THE ROAD 102, DIRECTION POSTOJNA |
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| FROM POSTOJNA WE REACHED THE CASTLE OF PREDJAMA THROUGH ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL ROADS EVER RIDDEN BY ME: THE 913 |
The Predjama Castle (Slovene: grad Predjama, in German: Höhlenburg Lueg, in Italian: Castel Lueghi) is a castle built within a cave mouth located in the village of Predjama, approximately 11 kilometres from the town of Postojna and 9 kilometres from Postojna Cave. The current facade dates from the 1580s, but records say a castle has been here on the site since the 13th century. This makes it an impregnable medieval stronghold with an amazing history and many legends, beside the story about Erasmus Luegg, the Slovenian Robin Hood. The cave under the castle is home to a colony of bats, but something else lurks here as well. Because the castle was built to defend itself, it had some other surprises in stock as well. It has holes in the ceiling of the entrance tower for pouring down boiling oil onto intruders and a very dark dungeon. There was a space in between the walls of the dungeon made to brick people in the wall. Bones were found inside the thick wall.
The Predjama Castle is a record breaker: the structure is listed by Guinness World Records as the world's largest cave castle.
A vertical natural shaft, which Erasmus ordered to be enlarged, leads out of the original castle, and leads to the exit located at the top of the cliff, 25 meters away from the cliff's edge. This shaft allowed Erasmus to secretly supply the castle with food in the time of the siege; he also used it to continue with his robberies.
The castle has been investigated by several paranormal teams and programs. According to some psychics, the ghost of Erasmus still haunts the castle.
A reconstruction of the castle was made into the map_de Castle for the game "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive". The castle was featured in the Jackie Chan film "Armour of God" and in Season 3 of "The Witcher".
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| ALONG THE 409, WE HAD A BREAK IN THE VILLAGE OF HRUŠEVJE AND JUST A FEW MOMENTS LATER, A TOMOS PARKED BESIDE US! |
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| THE TOWN OF ŠTANJEL (ITALIAN NAME: SAN DANIELE DEL CARSO) |
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| LUNCH AT "OŠTARIJA BRANIK", ALONG THE ROAD 204, OUR LAST STOP BEFORE REACHING THE BORDERLINE IN MIREN, NEAR NOVA GORICA/GORIZIA AND ENTER ITALY TO BRING OUR TRIP TO A CONCLUSION |
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| I FELT TOTALLY AT EASE DURING THIS TRIP, WHERE UNEXPECTED CHALLENGES TURNED INTO PLEASANT SURPRISES! |
