Saturday, August 24

We arrived at Mestre, the city on the mainland closest to Venice, and after missing a few of the frequent but scattered trains to Santa Lucia (I wrote the word “Wack-A-Platform” in my notes), transferred to a train that would take us to the spot printed on our ticket.  From there, we walked to pick up our rental car, and learned that now the rental cars are a short distance away. We schlepped there, got the car, and headed toward Slovenia.

(Note to self and others: no more renting of cars to leave town at the Venice car rental offices!  It’s just too complicated.  For all the walking you must do, and people-mover ticket buying, and where-are-we-ness, you might as well take the water taxi or a bus to the airport.  Maybe there are agencies around the train station in Mestre.)

We were chatting with our friends who told us we’d need a “vignette” for Slovenia, a little sticker that shows that you’ve paid the tax.  The one place in Italy we found that sold them had a really long line, so we figured we’d get it somewhere else.

On the way to Slovenia, we stopped in Cividale del Friuli, a city with a UNESCO-impromada medieval center.  In the old days, it was a seat of Longobard power in Italy, which if you type on your iPhone will tell you all about longboards.  The Gastaldaga area has a museum enclosing an Episcopal complex which surrounds a small Longobard chapel.  Very Russian Doll and the signage isn’t great.

When we arrived, it seemed like there was a Renaissance Faire or something happening, but I suppose tourists dress up and go there every weekend.  We poked around a bit, touring the monastery and its chapel which was of course under restoration. There was a nice river flowing through the center of the town.

From there we headed to Hisa Franko, the celebrated restaurant just across the border in Slovenia.  Four of our friends were also there, and we checked into our hotel rooms (you don’t want to drive anywhere after a wine pairing) and hung out on our “private terrace”, only accessible through two of our rooms.  Before long it was dinnertime, and we went down and had exquisite bites of many little things.  There were many wines over the course of the evening as well.  We told them that Ray and I wanted to split a wine pairing.  The whole point was not to drink so much, but they poured just as much as if we’d ordered two pairings (though they only charged us for one!)  We were eating for about two and a half hours, and then went in the kitchen and said hi to all the chefs. 

Then more hanging out on the terrace, sampling some of the amaros Emmett and Nikki had bought in a tiny store in Trieste the week before, where they’d seen a picture of me and Ray and Johan tacked up on the wall!  (The picture had been taken in a restaurant in Venice four years earlier, by one of the shop owners). Around 2:30am, we couldn’t stay awake any longer.

Sunday, August 25

The waiters, as well as the guests, look very Men-Before-Ten at breakfast.  There is a wide assortment of snacks, including cheeses and Kuleshov salami by which I mean it comes in several varieties with Michelin-starred backstories but would be indistinguishable in a blind tasting.  I have blind tastings much on my mind, since Clear Lake.

We all had a nice breakfast, and checked out, leaving a 75 euro tip.  The staff get 6 euros an hour as salary. This is regarded as a lot of money.

We headed to nearby Kobarid to walk around, stopping at the gas station to buy our “vignette”. From there, we walked to Slap Kozjak, a waterfall.  As we crossed the bridge, Kevin set up his phone to take a picture of us from a distance, and used his watch to trigger it.  That spurred me to look into my little camera, and I discovered that I could use its WiFi mode with my phone to not only trigger it but also to set any other parameter (except where it’s pointing).  Anyway, the walk to the waterfall (which had an admission fee) went up this narrow river canyon, and there were tons of cairns in the river.  Finally it got to a huge enclosed area, a cathedral of sorts, where the waterfall was located.  Quite scenic!  We walked back past some WWI trenches. 

We all had a delicious lunch at Hisa Polanco in the town of Kobarid, operated by one of the owners of Hisa Franko.

Afterwards, we checked out the farm where Kevin and Lindsay were staying.  Their host told us that the owners of Hisa Franko have gotten divorced but are still business partners.  Do you have friends who know what all the chefs are doing?  It seems to be a thing you can follow, like telling the difference between oregano and marjoram.