Cividale del Friuli is a beautiful little town, and dates back over 2,000 years, being founded by Julian Caesar in the year 53 BC. It’s full of winding little streets, a bustling central square and little nooks and crannies. There’s an attractive little bridge, museums and buildings of interest.
Which makes it all the more annoying that when I came to looking round for somewhere to eat there early on Saturday night, thinking I’d get in before tables were booked and restaurants filled, there didn’t seem to be anywhere open to sell food of any sort (unless you count ice cream). Restaurants were shut and cafes and bars sold only drinks. So I asked at the hotel and the receptionist said I would have to wait until 8pm before places started opening. I was tired and instead just ate a few snacks I already had before just crashing out to sleep by 9pm.
But next morning it wasn’t any better. The receptionist told me that I might be able to get something to eat between 12 and 2 on a Sunday. But by 1230 there were still no restaurants open and only one bar which proudly advertised baguettes and panini. I ordered a baguette and it arrived: dry, hard and tasteless, all of 12 euros too. And this was Italy, land of food. Luckily I had managed to find an out of town supermarket that was open earlier and grabbed a few more snacks. I must just have picked the wrong times to eat. It reminded me a bit of Britain in the 1970s.
Anyway, the main thing was I had had a rest and sleep in a nice cool room, and awoke refreshed to resume the walk. Today’s walk I knew was short and easy, which was just what I wanted at this stage.
Starting in the morning is never as quick and straightforward as I would like. You would think you could just walk out of the hotel door and start the walk. But before you get going there always seems to be so much to do. Apart from the usual morning activities- breakfast, teeth cleaning, ablutions, there are extra ones for walking: filling your water bottles, checking you have everything from hat to gps, covering yourself in sunscreen, finding the relevant walk instructions from the book, making sure you haven’t left anything charging still plugged in, sealing up you luggage and taking it downstairs to reception, paying for any drinks you’ve had, finding a supermarket that’s open to buy your lunch, switching on your gps, getting a signal, putting on the tracking device, sending messages to the family, extending your walking poles, checking you have enough money, making sure the hotel has returned your passport, checking where you are staying that evening and know where it is. It just seems such a lot of faff, and you’re always thinking you’ve forgotten something. I have now moved hotels 27 times in the last month as I walk from place to place and I’m feeling like a travelling salesman.
Finally, I left and soon after I bumped into Johann and Marianne again. We walked together for a little while, as we left the town and headed for the nearby vineyards. The landscape was totally different from any day before: cultivated, flat, with rows and rows of vines, some very gentle hills, and a few little bits of woodland in between.
It felt a bit like walking in Kent, if you mentally replaced the vines with hops (although Kent has some if its own vines these days) and was pleasant and enjoyable even though much of the day was spent on minor roads. The temperature had dropped back a bit, to the mid 20s or so, but what really helped was there was a quite strong breeze.
The farmhouses were attractive, rustic affairs- slightly dusty and often a bit delapidated, but attractive to look at. It was peaceful apart from the odd cock crowing or dog barking. I passed through a few villages – Gagliano, San Floriano and Mernico, and then climbed a steep set of steps up to a church, before crossing the invisible border back into Breg in Slovenia (just) and my room for the night .
It was a slow, uneventful day, but has eased me back into the walking for the final week or so. Tonight I’m staying at Tourist Farm Breg. Here my room is 400 metres down the road from the farm itself in my own house. Dinner and breakfast is in the main farm and there’s a nice view of the hillside.
Tomorrow is a much more substantial hike- nearly double the length, at 26 km instead of 14 km today. It also has the most significant ascent of any day left on the trail, a total of over 900 metres of climbing, still less than a lot of days I’ve done already. My book rates it easy to moderate, so I’m reassured by that and will just see how I get on.
Across the Alps to the Adriatic 