Riding north: Fruili Venezia Giulia and SLO

We rode the excellent and beautiful Paranzana rail-trail across Slovenia and back towards Italy. We would spend the next week straddling the border between north-eastern Italy (Friuli Venezia Giulia province) and Slovenia.  The Italian foothills host acres of vineyards and are sprinkled with quaint villages, giving way to less developed, and welcomingly more wild terrain in Slovenia. We were struck by the wildflowers and lush spring growth and saw our first glimpses of the big snow capped peaks (the Julian Alps).  From Trieste we made our way to Nova Gorica, Slovenia to stay with Roman and Marija (Warm Showers hosts). Their hospitality was excellent and we really enjoyed visiting with them and the wonderful home cooked meal! Both of them grew up in the same general area they now live and Roman's route suggestions proved to be excellent - comprised of high quality roads with little traffic and ample views of beautiful scenery.

We found ourselves feeling excited and inspired by the glimpses of the high peaks, and to be sure a bit intimidated too - soon we would be trying to pedal our bicycles through these and other similar high peaks. When we reached Kobarind, Slovenia we felt we had arrived back to the familiarity of the mountains, our sense of having passed back into a favorite realm was palpable.  The mighty Soča river (Slovenia's "Emerald River") with its glacial blue waters led the way up to the ski village of Bovec, and our home for the next couple of days.

Slovenia's Julian Alps and the Soča River valley are far more impressive than we were aware.  The villages of Kobarind and Bovec are both situated in amazing settings, and provide all the services touring cyclists might require.  We planned to use Bovec as a launching pad to ride over Predil Pass to see the end of stage 10 of the 2013 Giro d'Italia, and then on our departure up and over Vrsič Pass to Kranjska Gora on the border with Austria to the north.  

The Paranzana rail-trail runs from Trieste Italy all the way to Porec, Croatia.  We only rode the paved segment between the Croatian - Slovenian border around to Koper, Slovenia.  As a rail - trail it was great, but I guess in its time it was also a great light rail transit resource for the region too, decommissioned by Mousalini in the 1930's and sold at auction it robbed the region of a much beloved and useful mode of transit and connection with larger markets in Italy to the nort-east.

Although at times piecemeal, Slovenia has some impressive cycling infrastructure.  I was particularly impressed with this bicycle round-a-bout in e town of Koper.

We are riding lots of small roads like this; no shoulders, but who cares, there's no traffic!

Warm showers hosts Roman and Marija provided us a great stay and sent us off to discover some of the beauty and excellent cycling that Slovenia has to offer.

The mighty Soča River is a mesmerizing color of aquamarine blue, although we didn't even try to swim in it, we saw many excellent swimming holes that must provide refreshing cool - downs come the warmer temperatures of summer.

The view from the bar just below apartment Jo Jo was an awesome place to enjoy a beer.