Day 27 - Cividale del Friuli to Staro Selo - Oh The Places You'll Go - 2025

May 7, 2025

Day 27 - Cividale del Friuli to Staro Selo

The Focal Point

Today was the ‘seed crystal’ day for what eventually grew into this entire tour. It had its genesis way back in April of 2023 when we met up in Paris with Susan Carpenter at the start that year’s tour.

The three of us share a healthy interest in food and in our conversations Susan recounted her tales of a fabulous evening (and morning breakfast) at a wonderful place in a tiny village near the Slovenian Italian border. As we were thinking about this trip early this winter, we sort of flippantly thought, why don’t we try to get a reservation there for sometime in May. I sent off an email that night, knowing that the place was closed for several of the winter months, and thought that nothing would come of it.

When I woke up the next morning there was a reply in my inbox that said basically said “Sure, we’d love to see you on 7th may and yes you can book a room with us that night too. See you then.”

And that was it. We had a dinner reservation and room for the night booked 5 months out in a tiny town in Slovenia. I guess it was time to sort out a few other details …. like plane tickets and other sundry stuff.

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So cut to today, a short day but a long night!

The ride was a short but very interesting and scenic 25 km’s from Cividale to Staro Selo, but we added on a whopping additional 8 km’s by doing an out and back to Kobarid for a short look around.

As we had a short day, we lingered over the very good breakfast at our B&B in Cividale and took another little tour around town. This included a tour around the UNESCO temple / cathedral sight which turned out to be rather underwhelming. Granted, there’s a lot of work in progress at the sight(s) and if you’re a deep history buff or an archeologist, it might be your cup of tea. For us though, basically philistines to the core, we didn’t leave enthralled. Not a bad way to spend the morning through and we did enjoy another wander around this beautiful and interesting town.

The ride itself in Slovenia and to Staro Selo was spectacular. A virtually car free ride along the Natisone river that winds through a narrow gorge at the border brought us into Slovenia, and this time for real … we’ll be here for several days and once again, it looks like it will be spectacular.

The sky looked like it was threatening to rain on us the entire way but it held back. The wind didn’t play along though as we had a reasonable headwind for most of the day. Good thing it was short.

This post will be short too (the writing part) as we’re off to dinner now.

Start of the day at the Adelaide statue. Apparently Adelaide Ristort, a Cividale native, was a world famous actress at the turn of the 20th century, so she got this statue in prime real estate. Nice place for a pic.

Very good breakfast at our B&B Domus Iulii

Just like this guy who was painted on a wall in a staircase a the Lombard Temple

Empty Room 9 at the monastery part of the museum. Taking the minimlist aesthetic to the extreme

Quaint houses and a lovely fresco on this church

Street scenes in medieval part of Cividale

Time to hit the road. Leaving Cividale of quiet secondary roads. It would just continue to get better than this.

Quaint buildings in the numerous but small villages dotting the way to Slovenia

Rolling terrain with ups and a few downs. Overall great cycling with a modest elevation gain. Note the heavy traffic. We counted the vehicles we saw on one hand.

Approaching Slovenia through this very narrow gorge

Snow sheds in the gorge - felt a little like home!

Inside the snow shed. No evidence of major avalanches in the surrounding trees, but they must happen

A little bit of uphill in the narrow gorge as we approach the border

Nice easy downhill for the rest of the way. Great road and NO traffic, cars, truck or bikes.

The very understated sign for this incredible restaurant and small hotel. Check in wasn’t until 4 and we were here before 3 so we rode another 3 km down the road to check out Kobarid.

I have to admit that I’ve had a few “The Menu” moments wondering how the night at Hisa Franko would go, as it’s the most highly revered place we’ve ever been too (and a little bit of ‘imposter syndrome’ creeping in too), but safe to say, we’re alive, I have all my fingers …. And the night was sensational.

Really, this place is amazing. Incredible food, quite a bit of it gathered from the fields and streams around the place, and the staff were super friendly, engaged and passionate about their local cuisine.

The evening didn’t lend itself to the photo bomb experience I usually do, but here’s a few to give a flavour for the night.

.. and it was just that, a potato baked in a salt/hay crust accompanied with a sour cream with yeast and hay. Sounds simple, and it was, but also delicious. Who doesn’t like baked potatoes??

Trout the Queen - looks so beautiful …. And tasted better than it looks

having fun with reflections from our wine glasses. This one looks like it right out of “The Menu” … or a Tim Burton equivalent

… and here’s another wine glasses alien paying a visit

Kirsten had the N/A pairing which were mostly Kamboocha’s (all great) and I had the ‘funky’ wine pairing - also great

And here’s the somewhat understated menu (and there were several - off menu - additions. Everything was sensational, but the tagliolini was the standout for me

SOTD

Oh man, where to start, where to go. Hisa Franko had a pretty good playlist going on, mostly 70’s through 90’s classics, no doubt catering to their clientele demographics. Over the evening we heard no less than four songs that we’ve featured as SOTD’s in previous journals. Each one of those was a little jog down memory lane for us, which the main raisone d’être of SOTD. However we’re not going to do a re-run - not for tonight.

When we arrived at just before 4 and were checking in, Dire Straits ‘Once Upon a Time in the West’ from their second album was playing, and there were several more DS tunes spun throughout the night. Taking Ana Roš at her word “take a moment to look at the beautiful art hanging on the walls of Hisa Franko” - we did, and it was like a gallery. So with that:

In the Gallery, Dire Straits live in Germany 1979 (oh Knopfells (sic) is so young and skinny!)

Good night from Staro Selo! Amazing first full day in Slovenia!

Today's ride: 33 km (20 miles)
Total: 1,295 km (804 miles)

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Rich FrasierThis day had all the components of a PERFECT cycle touring day! I’m jealous!!
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1 month ago

Lyle McLeodTo Rich FrasierThanks Rich, it was a pretty memorable day.
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1 month ago