Castagnevizza, Panovec, Ossegliano, lago di Vogrscek, Raccogliano

Departure from the EXPOMEGO parking lot in Gorizia, near the supermarket.

After the start we cross the city of Gorizia until we reach the suburban Via della Cappella, where we cross the border and reach the monastery of Castagnevizza, where the remains of the last king of France and his family rest, then a series of beautiful dirt roads on Panovec, a magnificent Slovenian mountain park. We then pass the village of Ozeljan beginning the climb, still on dirt roads, to the small church of Sv.Marija (St. Mary): the arrival at the viewpoint is very exciting, through a stone archway that drops onto the road. Usually the building is closed so all we have to do is to ride the fairly technical descent that will take us to Sempas and from there, again through dirt roads with low technical content, onto Lake Vogrscek where we will face a series of ups and downs.

Now the terrain and landscape changes, the macadam road skirts the Vipacco River (Vipava in Slovenian), with an idyllic setting, the river flowing peacefully, the many trees providing shade to the various benches scattered along the way. We change scenery again, with the lush vineyards of Martinjak and Margovnik, with a succession of steep climbs and fun descents on a clay bottom. The return to Italy is by the side of the Guardia di Finanza barracks; the last effort will be tackling the Soča Park of St. Andrew that will take us to our starting point.