A pleasant hike, which with little effort allows you to immerse yourself in an atmosphere of yesteryear and discover a charming natural corner just a stone's throw from the historic center of Venzone. Among hazels, hornbeams, maples and limes, you reach the ancient church of St. Catherine and Saints James and Anne, rebuilt after the 1976 earthquake.
A walk through the streets of Venzone gives one the pleasant sensation of feeling immersed in an atmosphere of yesteryear. Admiring portals and mullioned windows with two lights, one heads toward Porta San Genesio, the exclusive pedestrian exit to the east, from which one can observe the imposing city walls built in successive phases from the 13th to the 15th century. Once past the moat, one goes along Via S. Caterina and after a short uphill stretch, one leaves the asphalt road and takes an aerial path on the left that climbs the slope among hazel, manna ash, hornbeam, maple and linden trees. Upstream of the trail some boulders show interesting karst phenomena due to the dissolution of limestone by water: their surface has some small cavities and is crossed by more or less parallel furrows separated by minute ridges. Well-preserved dry stone walls flank the trail; asplenium, a small and pretty fern, grows among the cracks, while a variety of moss species decorate the surface of the stones.
In a short time you reach a small shrine dedicated to St. Anthony from which the itinerary continues flat in the shade of a row of hazelnut trees, replaced here and there by dogwood sanguinello and the priest's cap, a shrub with curious four-lobed pinkish fruits that when ripe display four orange (poisonous) seeds. If you proceed without making too much noise you can observe a few roe deer and listen for the rhythmic call of the cuckoo, a parasitic brooding bird that lays its eggs in the nests of other birds, entrusting them with the task of raising its young. Continue in the same direction for a short distance until you come to a convenient path on the right, slightly downhill; then leave the straight path that enters the Venzonassa Valley and follow the lane. After traversing the wide plateau covered with meadows, dotted with the purple of common sage and the yellow of buttercups, you reach the ancient church of S. Caterina (10th V century); destroyed by the 1976 earthquake, it was rebuilt between 1986 and 1987. The beauty of the place is definitely worth a stop. Looking up to the north, as well as coming across a few buzzards in flight, one can admire the steep southern slopes of Mount Plauris (on the far left Cima Somp Selve), while the extreme western offshoots of Mount Ledis/Bedede graze the church.
In the area there are still some traces of the medieval fortified structures that ran along the slopes of the hill until they joined the defensive works of the nearby Borgo San Giacomo. The path continues to the right of the small church among linden, manna ash and hornbeam trees and after a short steep descent, leads directly behind the church of Saints James and Anne; dating from the 10th-11th centuries, it was the first church to be rebuilt after the 1976 earthquake. Driving along the carriage road that heads north from behind the church, on the right you can make out among the vegetation the vertical stratification of the rock face above, a testament to the incredible forces that formed our mountains millions of years ago. In a short time, after passing through the area of Cjampcjscjel, rich in medieval evidence with fortifications and walls, we reach the starting point of this pleasant hike, which with little effort allows us to discover an evocative natural corner just a stone's throw from the historic center of this beautiful town.
Una visita al centro storico di Venzone è d'obbligo per completare l'esperienza.
Si consiglia anche una visita al museo Tiere Motus sui tragici eventi sismici del 1976 e alla mostra permanente "BOSC", dedicata ai boschi del Friuli Venezia-Giulia.
