Exploring the Karst area around Trieste amid legends, history and vineyards

Food Slow Tour

3 October 2018

Food Slow Tour

Exploring the Karst area around Trieste amid legends, history and vineyards

An ancient legend has it that once this area was full of greenery and waterways. But in a distant place, a huge number of stones damaged agriculture. So, God ordered the Archangel Gabriel to fill a large sack with all the stones and throw them into the sea. However, when he had almost reached his destination, near the Adriatic Sea, the Devil wanted to see what was inside that sack, and pierced it with his large horns. All the stones fell onto the Karst area and reduced it to stone.

Today, the Karst area is not just about stone. The province of Trieste is the smallest one in Italy but, as we often say, “in the small barrel there is good wine”. And so, we will find out.
Today I am in Prepotto di San Pelagio, in the municipality of Duino-Aurisina: a borderland like all of Friuli- Venezia Giulia, but never like the still little-known heart of Europe it is today.
This is why, I also believe that "I Curiosi del Territorio" (Explorers of the Territory) are created, international cultural exchanges for young Europeans organised by the IRSE (Regional Institute for European Studies) of Pordenone. Three weeks of adventures that lets them discover the natural, historical, artistic and culinary treasures of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region. Today, I have the pleasure of exploring with them in this enchanting Karst area, situated between the Adriatic Sea and Slovenia.

It is a place that I have often only imagined and glimpsed from a car window when passing by or from a train heading to Trieste. Another time I hiked through the Karst area, but always very close to the sea. And now I have discovered that beyond that window and not far from the sea, there is a world and many stories just waiting to be discovered. And we couldn’t have had a better guide than Lara, who has always lived and worked here, welcoming and pampering tourists and travellers with the food and wine products of her farm and winery.

We walk among vineyards and trenches, through a territory that inevitably brings to mind the tragedy of the Great War. Curiosity is certainly the spark that feeds knowledge and enables us to find the courage to go where we would never have thought we would venture. For example, entering and crossing a huge cave (Grotta Lesa) in the half-light, which allows us to go beyond the dark and discover an easy and fascinating path surrounded by greenery, leading to an inviting wooden staircase carved out of the rock. Where might it take us?

“We are in the Lupinc Škaljunk park, a place that has been restored and tended by my father Danilo,” Lara tells us. The trench built by Russian prisoners during the First World War reminds us of the hard life in these areas during the war. Here in Austro-Hungarian territory, Polish, Czech, Hungarian and Bosnian soldiers fought. The young locals were sent to Russia to prevent them from having to fight on home ground, as it was unpleasant in the emotional sense.

“When I was a child, I used to come here to play houses. These are the places of my childhood. Small stone houses were built a little for pleasure and a little out of necessity by shepherds, who brought sheep and goats to graze here from the typical farms of the area. But the local stone is not all the same and can also be very precious. The famous Karst stone used in the construction of important and famous buildings all over the world, such as the parliaments of Vienna and Budapest, is extracted from these areas.

Near the trench, an attractive viewing point has been made out an old tree trunk. With the aid of a short ladder, we can admire a panorama that lets us enjoy a wonderful view of the unmistakable shape of the Sanctuary of Mount Grisa and as far as the sea at Trieste, which was once the Mediterranean port for the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire.

It’s now lunchtime. The cuisine of this area is also influenced by a combination of Austrian and Mediterranean flavours, paired with the excellent wines of the Karst area. The land, sea, sun and wind are elements that give the wine of these places their distinctive character. “In the 1960s, my father was the first person to bottle wine in the Karst area, promoting the native white wine: Vitovska,” Lara tells us. Other fine treasures can also be found in bottles around here are, for example, Terrano and Malvasia Istriana. Needless to say, I couldn't help but taste them all and they helped provide a happy ending to our day.

This ancient Central European territory, steeped in history, legends, curiosities and culture, including culinary culture, is just waiting to be experienced and enjoyed.