Technical data:
- Start: Malchina
- Arrival: Sgonico
- Difference in height: 300 m
- Maximum elevation: 320 m
- Minimum elevation: 149 m
- Length: 15.5 km (outward) 15.5 km (return)
- Estimated travel time: 4 hours (outward) 4 hours (return)
- Cartography: Tabacco chart 1:25000 sheet #047 - Carso Isontino and Triestino
- Difficulty: touristic
Description:
The square of Malchina is the heart of the hamlet
The square is dominated by the baroque-style church dedicated to San Nicola, dated first to 1305, and by the local stone building, with above-ground loggia and side steps
These were the Municipality headquarters between 1856 and 1928. During the Great War, the hamlet was damaged by artillery fire due to its proximity with Mt. Ermada, last Austrian bastion put in defense of Trieste and its port of strategic importance to the Empire.
The panel in front of the building illustrates the Gemina route in its entirety. It must be approached on a straight course, leaving the first panel at one’s right, then turning left and then again right, with the help of the arrow pointers signs. The trail’s start runs by an agritourism. The beautiful osmize, which make the Malchina built-up area a popular destination in the plateau, offer alluring chances for degustation.
In the woods between Malchina and San Pelagio
The trail is wide, well-marked and almost constantly flanked by the Carso’s traditional drywalls. In the first segment, the dirt road passes through meadows and copse woods, to then go on into a black pines wood. At the first junction, if leaving the Gemina trail, you can reach the hamlet of Slivia, where the Castelliere Marchetti lays: It is an imposing defense site dated back to the 2nd millennium b.C, fortified with two justaxposed stone massive drywalls, one of them being tall up to 5 meters.
This ancient village is so well-preserved that aerial and satellite photographs depict it as a crown on the summit of the high rise, right outside the built-up area. The Castelliere is worth a visit, after which you can retrace your steps back to the Gelmina.
An Y junction will test the hiker’s attention, despite the precise and well-placed signs and markings helping one to orient oneself without a chance for mistake.
San Pelagio
After the first 5km spent in the woods, you will arrive at the first houses of San Pelagio. A narrow pathway will lead you to the church square, flanking gardens and doors crowned by the typical sculpted stone portals.
The church dedicated to San Pelagio – which is dated about 15th century despite it being worked on several times – presents a baroque portal topped by a mullioned window.
It is especially famous for the belfry topped by a sharp steeple, unusually realized in Veneto stile which is considered one of the most handsome of the Carso.
Before walking on, one should take a detour, heading straight along the church’s left side so to admire the ancient parsonage, traditional Carso house, skillfully restored and destined as civic center
The house was built in 1566 with local rocky material and even the roof is made with limestone shingles, typically flat, just like for all ancient Carso constructions.
Going on along the path, one will walk along the church and passing behind the apsis down in the direction of the sea.
Between San Pelagio and Grotta Azzurra
Leaving the built-up area of San Pelagio, walk on toward Prepotto always following the green arrows on yellow background.
We will hike a few narrow streets between the fences, and then cross paths along rows of vines and olive groves facing the Adriatic, defying the Bora from their terraces. This is one of the trail’s most scenic and evocative segment, where the sight can stretch between the green of the vineyards and olive trees, and the blue of the sea. The low vineyards you meet are cultivations of native varieties, which survived the epidemics that during the centuries hit these areas. The trail flanks the Prepotto hamlet only, where still many typical houses with stone chimneys and gutters, authentic testimonies of the Carso’s characteristic bucolic architectures.
Keep hiking along the trail until you meet a sign reading “Grotta Azzurra”.
In order to reach it, you need to deviate from the Gemina. Follow the red-paint markers, flanking some vineyards first, then the path enters the woods. Keep walking until you see on your right an even narrower, lesser path marked – a little further than the junction - by a red arrow painted on a rock as well. The lesser path you must take declines to the dolina, on the bottom of which you will find the opening of the cave.
Grotta Azzurra
Grotta Azzurra (Zidaričeva pejca), opens on the side of a large dolina. It slopes slightly on the inside and on its floor rocks fallen from the roof cover clay deposits and pile up to the few concretions. The cavity has a horizontal course: it’s 46 meters deep and extends about 225 mt.
The dolina and the cave appear to be unused since prehistory, a fact proven by the remains of prehistoric animals, tools and pottery found in the bottom deposits: Mute testimony of man’s passage since the Paleolithic, despite the most important remains are dated to the following mesolithic and neolithic eras. Even in the metal age man kept seeking shelter in the caves, although in this phase they built nearby a Carso fortified village with a double circle of walls.
With the help of a torchlight, paying attention not to slip, you can enter the cavity.
Ternova Piccola
After visiting Grotta Azzurra, go back to the Gemina trail and from there until you cross the country road. On your right, a large sign help us following the track, which bends to the left for a short stretch on the asphalt road just like the nearby sign says. The sign also points out to Ternova rest stops and trade activities.
The Skerk arts and culture center– Umetniški in kulturni center, which since 1998 organizes several events and sets up exhibits of painters, some of them prominent on an international level, is hosted in an 1857 manor.
Furthermore, inside the same building find the Hermada association – Soldiers and civilians /Hermada – Vojuaki in civilisti, which engages in studies, publications and exhibits about World War I.
Here, there used to be a fortified village of the 2nd millennium b.C, but today only a skilled eye can tell out its remains.
The trail goes on along the the asphalt road leading to the built-up area, where the typical Carso houses are framed by the green.
From Ternova, hike on a dirt road until you arrive to Samatorza.
Samatorza
Even before walking into the hamlet, you can notice the regularity of the osmize and agritourisms that welcome the visitor to Samatorza. Peeking from behind the stone portals and into the gardens, you will be immediately drawn to the red-and-white of the colorful checkered tablecloths laid over the tablefuls, unmistakable clues that the property is open to the public
The ancient built-up area – the first mention dates to 1327 – is the starting point to different walks anywhere near, just as pointed out by the illustrated panels set in the hamlet’s center.
To those who wanted to deviate toward Mount San Leonardo, on their way they can visit a Natural Reserve, a lookout post, a fortified village, a cave and the remains of the namesake church.
Hiking along Gemina trail, you will arrive instead to the 15th century church of San Ulderico, one of Carso’s most ancient ones.
It’s a small church with a side decorated with a small rose window, surmounted by a belfry with three bells. On the building’s back, in the small small graveyard, a Polish soldier dead in 1917 was buried together with the residents.
Sales
In order to arrive to Sales, you must hike a long woods trail leading first under the slopes of Mt. Coste, then to the northern limit of the built-up area, among the most populous hamlets of the Sgonico municipality. Deviating from the track and down toward the center, nearby the well you will meet another trail, the Rekikenca, dedicated to Lojze Spacal, Slovenian painter and Sgonico honorary citizen.
Just like often happens in these territories that so much suffered the 1900s war tragedies, a memorial stone dedicated to the victims of World War II stands in the hamlet’s other square.
