Italy
Fernetti

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    • Day 5

      Royal Visits

      June 2, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 75 °F

      Sunday we were up bright and early for a trip to the Karst region, southwest from Ljubljana toward the Dinaric Alps and the Adriatic Sea. Our guide today wasTomaž, also from Slovenia Explorers. Although this was one of their standard tours, we were the only four, so Tomaž gave us options for how we'd like the day to go and what we'd like to see.
      Our first stop was in Štanjel, where we had a leisurely walk along the grounds of the Middle-Age era castle. There are small houses built around the walls of the castle, which are slowly being restored; a few are available as vacation rentals. Our main interest there was the Ferrari Garden, built in 1928. These gardens are a beautiful complement to the incredible views of the Vivapa valley. Of course, we had to have a little break for kava, pivo and lemonade here.
      Our next stop was a lunch of local specialties: pršut, cheese, and lovely ruby red Teran wine. The locals claim their pršut (prosciutto) is the best due the Karst Bora wind. We agree!
      The highlight of the day was our visit to the Lippizzaner Stud Farm in Lipica (hence the name). This is the oldest continuously operating breeding farm in the world, founded in 1580. The Hapsburg royalty wanted elegant military and riding horses, so the strong and resilient native Karst mares were bred with Andalusian, Arabian and other stallions. We were able to visit the mares and new foals (dark when born, gradually turning white), the stallion barns, and watch a performance of riding, carriage driving, dressage, and of course, the "airs above the ground."
      On our return to Ljubljana, we detoured to see the Predjama Castle. The name is actually very literal, as it means "castle in a cave": amazing! We relaxed there with a little gelato and kava (the Slovenians like their coffee!).
      Our drive back to Ljubljana was slowed by an accident on the highway and heavy traffic. We made it just in time for Mark and Carina to get their taxi to the airport for their flight home to London. We were sad to say goodbye to them after sharing a wonderful weekend.
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