41. Capodanno, and a hike in the Val Rosandra Nature Preserve

Looking across the hazy valley to Chiesetta di Santa María in Siaris,

Wednesday, January 1, 2020: New Year’s Day. Welcome 2020. To start out the new year right, we’re going on a hike. We take the bus up the mountain from Paola’s house to the village of Opicina, where I used to teach, and meet up with Franca, Paola’s cycling buddy. Franca has lived her entire life in the nearby village of Santa Croce, population 1,248. She is a nurse by training, and is about to retire from teaching nursing, which she loves and is sad to leave, though she will keep teaching in some capacity, at the University of Trieste Medical School. Besides being an avid hiker and bicyclist, for years she has made her own olive oil from her own olive trees.

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  Paola and Franca.

To begin our hike, we drive to a trailhead situated in a little village near the Val Rosandra Nature Preserve, and begin walking very, very leisurely, constantly stopping to talk and look at the spectacular views. We can see across the hazy valley to a small church, Chiesetta di Santa María in Siaris, set on a sloped mountainside. Hikers commonly attend a mass here on New Year’s Day, and we actually spot a group leaving the church and walking down the steep mountain path. I’m told that this is where hiker couples often choose to marry. (See photo of Chiesetta di Santa María in Siaris at beginning of this post.)

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Franca tells me that since we’re so close to the border with Slovenia, Val Rosandra is an area where illegal immigrants coming overland often enter Italy. At this time, these immigrants are mostly from Syria and Afghanistan, and there’s not so many now, as in the past, from Africa. Franca also tells me that many immigrants walk down the mountain, planning to take a local bus into Trieste, only to be apprehended by the police who often beat them. There have been a number of immigrant deaths from exposure in these mountains, and often they leave clothes and supplies for those following them. We see a sleeping bag lying on the ground, hidden amongst some bushes, one such example.

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We walk through the little hamlet of Draga, which is in Italy but mostly inhabited by Slovenians. We walk along a wide trail and through some tunnels and see a sign that indicates that we have just passed in and out of Slovenia. We stop in a little mountain hut, a kind of trattoria and bar, and drink red wine. Up to this point, we’ve mostly been walking down, so now we have to climb back up about 1,000 meters (nearly 3,300 feet). We see more breathtaking views, and looking back toward the Julian Alps, we can see snow covered mountains. After about four hours, we make it back to the car, and Franca drives us home.

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  In the village of Draga.

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Inside the mountain hut.

I grab my computer and something to eat and catch the bus for Marco’s house so that I can use the internet and hang out with him and his wife Susanna. Back home I indulge in a chocolate torta, one of the best I’ve ever eaten, a gift from Sandra, Paola’s younger sister. Today has been a great start to a new year.