Gunternation

On Friday after breakfast at Skerlj we chatted with a couple from Wales. Like many visitors to Slovenia, they were heading to the Alps for some hiking and camping. We talked about various places to visit in the area, one of which was nearby caves. Bill and I decided that a cave visit would be our activity for the day, so after a snack of leftover pizza we hit the road for Divača. Unlike Idrija, Divača really was only 30 minutes away. We stopped for lunch at Gostilna Malovec. Bill had some gnocchi and a salad, I had some spinach pastry, and for dessert we had a regional specialty–pastry layered with nuts and cottage cheese called gibanica. Wonderful.

We arrived at Škocjanske jame, the Škocjan caves, in time for the 3:00 tour. Even though the Škocjanske jame tour takes about an hour, we saw only a few of the cave’s chambers. The size of the cave system, its excellent examples of karst topography resulting from dissolved limestone, and the cave’s beauty have earned Škocjanske jame distinction as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We enjoyed our visit underground in the cool, moist, otherworldly surroundings (where no pictures were allowed). We descended a couple hundred meters and then had to climb our way back up many steps. The tour ends at the opening of the cave where the Reka-Velka river begins its underground path. The river valley and surrounding mountains are breathtaking.

Friday night as we went to dinner, the courtyard was full of people, and a brass band was unpacking its instruments. We learned that Skerlj was hosting a 70th birthday. The party was taking place inside, but as we dined in the courtyard we were able to enjoy the festive music.

Unfortunately I fell ill during the night, and spent all of Saturday in our room. Bill made a few forays out–to bring me chamomile tea and bread, to drive to the next town to find some lunch and buy me bananas, to walk through the village, and to eat another amazing dinner at Skerlj.

By Sunday I was thankfully upright again, and we left mid-morning for our drive to Marco Polo airport outside Venice. We stopped to visit Štanjel, a walled village perched on the side of a mountain that we had sped past during our driving fest the day before. We sat in the garden by the Villa Ferrari and gazed out at the spectacular scenery. We watched a hawk gliding on the air currents. For minutes at a time he appeared motionless before suddenly diving straight down into the valley. After lunch we continued our drive back into Italy.

Our flight wasn’t until 9PM, so we still had several hours to fill. After crossing into Italy we picked a random exit and drove into the walled town of Palmanova. 16th century Palmanova was an innovative fortress town, built in the shape of a nine-pointed star. We wandered around the square for a while, stopped into an “internet cafe”–actually a restaurant with a computer in the corner (which the hostess had to convince some kids to relinquish)–and enjoyed some kind of alcoholic lemon ice.

Then it was back on the road to Marco Polo. Hopefully the airport is not as close to Venice as we’ll ever get.

On our second day in Slovenia, August 27, after a lovely breakfast and stroll, we set out for Idrija, a town about thirty or so kilometers away as it appeared on the map. What the map didn’t show was the three mountains we had to cross to get there. Up and down, round and round went Sharon and Bill in the little Fiat. A flat, green space in the valley to catch your breath. Then again into the hairpin turns, so tight upon themselves that I said they were hairbow turns. “I think we’re on a Möbius strip of road,” Bill said.

We got hungry and ate some nuts I had brought along. We glimpsed amazing views too fleeting for the camera and cyclists with no fear of altitude. The trees and houses started looking more peaked and Alpine. Around 3:00 we reached Idrija and wandered around somewhat deliriously, looking for Gostilna Pri Škafarju where a wood-fired oven reportedly turned out lovely pizzas, and you can try the regional specialty, žlikrofi.

We found the restaurant just off the square and sat at a picnic table out front. We ordered a starter of pršut, cheese and olives, and pizza and žlikrofi with mushroom sauce. The server brought out some ketchup. For what? The pizza, he said.

The žlikrofi are small dumplings filled with potato and bacon and served with a variety of toppings. These žlikrofi were gorgeous, obviously handmade. The filling was fluffy, not at all gummy. The sauce contained fresh porcinis. Delicious. The pizza was wonderful as well. Perfect crust. We ordered far too much food, and wrapped up half the pizza to take with us.

Idrija is a lovely town, known for a history of mercury mining and lace making. We were a bit too late to visit the mining museums, but we did stop by some lace shops. We didn’t have long to stay though. We were due back at the farm at 7:30 for dinner.

We arrived at Skerlj farm around 2:00 on Wednesday. Our day had started 11 hours earlier, so we decided to pass the afternoon at the pool. From the moment we stepped off the plane in Treviso, we were bathed in warm sunshine. We didn’t eat a single meal indoors until we were back at the airport.

After a dip and some poolside reading, we took a nap. After our wonderful meal, we sat on the patio outside our room in the lovely evening.

Thursday we enjoyed a breakfast of fresh fruit, bread, honey, cheese and pršut and a daily baked fig item. All our meals were enjoyed under a grape arbor laden with grapes. After breakfast we visited the rabbit hutch and peeked in on our pig neighbors. We walked down the hill past grape vines and peach, fig and plum trees. Veggie patches were planted in any available spot. The chicory patch was clipped in places–last night’s salad most likely! We walked to a church down the hill and sat in the cool breeze and enjoyed the view. I could have spent the entire day there with some bread, cheese, a jug of wine and a book.

See more pics in the slide show below:

We walked through the small village and back up the hill to our lodging. That afternoon we headed out for a drive to Idrija.

In July Bill and I noticed an interesting tidbit in the New York Times about agri-tourism in Slovenia. After one glance at the slide show, we knew we had to go. We were looking for a destination for a short trip in August, and so we immediately made plans to visit the Skerlj family farm in Tomaj, Slovenia.

My mental picture of a farm is a white house surrounded by corn fields, and my expectations for a secluded farmhouse had been reinforced by the farm where we stayed in Tuscany, reached via a long, curvy drive. So I expected the Skerlj farm to be very remote, but in fact it is perched in the midst of Tomaj village. The area is hilly and the farm is terraced. The buildings are centered around a courtyard. The sloping hill below is covered with steps of grapes and fruit trees. Across the road behind the pool are more grapes, and vegetables and figs. Every available spot on the property grows some beautiful, delicious plant. In addition to the fruits and vegetables, the family keeps bees, rabbits and pigs. Our room was right above the pigs. Very farm-like!

Dinner at the farm is an unbelievable €10.00 per person. We planned to partake of the dinner offering the first night, but then thought we might try other restaurants on the subsequent evenings. But after that first night we were so taken but the fresh, beautiful food and dining under the grapes in the cool breeze that we had dinner at Skerlj every night.

Our starter on the first evening was a lasagna made with crespelle instead of lasagna noodles. Crespelle are crepe-like and make a wonderfully light lasagna. Each dinner featured a salad fresh from the garden dressed with a simple vinaigrette. Chicory, cucumber and cabbage were included almost every night, with a variation of tomatoes, apples, and beans. Yes, beans are common on Slovenian salads. I was happy to see that Slovenians love the mandolin slicer, as I love wafer-thin cucumber and salad veggies. We had several preparations of pork during our stay, and fried rabbit one night. We’re not skilled at eating rabbit; I seemed to encounter a lot of bones, but it was delicious with the plum sauce. We had just visited the rabbit hutch that afternoon, so I was wondering if I would recognize my dinner. The vegetables with dinner were all terrific. We particularly liked the zucchini the first night that was cooked with garlic and pumpkin seeds. We had several delicious soups–a veggie soup drizzled with bučno olje (pumpkin seed oil), a classic Slovenian ingredient, and a wonderful mushroom soup. Dessert was homemade ice cream on two nights–honey flavored, with their own aromatic honey, and peach. It was wonderful to eat tomatoes and peaches grown in actual sunshine! We also had a wonderful panna cotta and a plum dumpling.

We drank Skerlj wine with dinner every evening, and in the end the wine tab was about €7.00. That with the €20 a night total for dinner is so affordable my mind is still spinning.

Take a look at the slide show below for pics of these amazing meals.