Back into Slovenia

Day 31: Cividale di Friuli to Breg

Hours walked: 10:00 - 2:00

Kilometres walked: 13.5

Jesuses seen: we don’t know 

Quote of the day: we don’t have one. It’s been a long hike. 

The girls started their day going for an extra walk around town with Jakob: it sounds silly to go for a walk before walking, but they wanted to try out the route we had set up. So, after exploring the empty Sunday-morning cobblestones spotting hidden sculptures, and fortifying ourselves with tiny cream pastries, we set out over the Devil’s Bridge and left town heading southeast on the Alpe Adria Trail. 

It was very hot, but that didn’t sto the girls from playing in the playground we found on the way out of town.  The first part of our day was spent on concrete and gravel roads, passing through undulating hills and vineyards. We find it very meditative to walk beside vineyards with neatly lined-up rows of grapes and through the cute little towns nestled between the vineyards. 

As our trail was on roads all morning, as soon as we entered the forest we took advantage of the rare shady stretch to have some lunch: bread and cheese as usual. This area is not only full of grapes, but also many other varieties of fruit: it was difficult for the children to walk by ripe apricots and peaches and cherries and nearly-ripe figs without eating them - but luckily we found a few cherry trees in untended fields and stained our mouths red. 

We could see the town we were going to well before we reached it, as it stood high on a hill. After passing through more towns and small vineyards we crossed a river and climbed a long hill to a small church mere feet from the border with Slovenia. As we were quite early for the night’s accommodation, we opted to laze around outside the church for nearly an hour, playing with sticks and stones or reading maps depending on age, before heading into Breg. 

Breg was a very small town but our accommodation was cute and had a wonderful view into Friuli’s sprawling patchwork of vineyards. Dinner was a fantastic mix of Italian and Slovenian cuisine, with frico, frittata, gnocchi and other dishes sprinkled with lavender, mint and other herbs. We enjoyed every bite and didn’t even mind the extra kilometre walking to and from our room along a scenic dirt road.