St. Ulrich to Trieste, Day 17 - Duino Aurisina to Trieste

Tuesday July 7, Duino Aurisina to Trieste

The great hiking adventure of 2026 is a wrap. Overall, 221 miles hiked/walked, 34,825' elevation gain, more than that descent, from St. Ulrich - Ortisei in the Dolomites to sea level in Trieste. 

Today's photos begin with my annual plea: if you pee while hiking, pee off the trail, not in the middle of it, and for the love of all that is good, pack your TP out. Better yet, be an environmental steward and get yourself a re-usable, washable, sanitary Kula Cloth or other sanitary pee cloth so you can leave no trace, because ewww. (It should go without saying that if you poop in the woods, you should poop off trail and bury it, but apparently that needs saying too.)

Our off-road route after leaving Duino Aurisina was supposed to begin near a scenic overlook where a lot of folks had camped overnight in cars and vans. We gave the trail a valiant but brief effort, but the quantity of TP, used condoms, and human poop was so disgusting that we decided to stick to the road until we were further away from people.

We spent most of the day on roads and trails about 800 feet above the sea.

A blaze showed us where to cross the freeway so we could reach the trail up the hillside. Some indication for drivers would have been nice too--zebra stripes or a pedestrian crossing sign, for example. Oh well. Crossing was a little nerve-wracking.

Up we went, leaving the busy road, fast cars, and TP behind. 

The rest of the route was a treat. In the morning, it was still clear enough to see the boot of Italy extending faintly across the horizon. The hills to the left included Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia. It was too hazy to see the Alps.

Pretty sure the faint white smudge in the distance is Venice.

In many ways, the cliff views reminded us of Highway 1 in California.

Occasionally the trail took us inland far enough to lose sight of the sea. We paused for acqua minerale con gas in Santa Croce.

Italy participates in the Stolperstein project. We saw several memorial stones in towns both large and small between St. Ulrich and Trieste. 

Adolf Sedmak joined the resistance when he was 17. Captured, deported to Buchenwald, assassinated.

The village of Prosecco is on the Walk of Peace.

The castle below on the spit is Miramar. We decided we'd seen enough grand Habsburg castles and not enough sea views, so we didn't hike down.

We took this photo in the morning, near a lookout tower above Miramar, before we were hot, hungry, and dehydrated. 

Looking for a shady spot with a view to eat an apple, we learned sometimes you could have either shady or a view but not both.

There were stone walls along many of the day's trails.

Thanks again to a culture that puts public fountains in the paths of hot and tired hikers!

This part of the cliff wall is a training spot for rock climbers.

We passed a photo shoot for a Maserati. 

The road--which didn't have much traffic--turned into the pedestrian-only Napoleonica trail, built in 1821. (Despite its name, neither Napoleon nor his troops were ever there.) Straight, impeccably maintained with brilliant white gravel, and only slightly uphill in our direction, it offered 5km of panoramic views, of which apparently I took only one photo because every step looked like the next.

Approaching the end of the trail, nearing Trieste

At the end of the trail, a cobblestone street took us down 1,050' all the way into Trieste.

Mission accomplished: here we are, about the enter Trieste city limits, looking hot, hungry, and dehydrated.

Down, down, down...

Once we were near sea level, we still had almost two miles to walk through town to our hotel. When the day began, we were thinking 13.5 miles sounded like a relatively short day. By the time we checked in and figured out how to turn on the AC, we were wiped out. We ditched our "bonus hike" to see the sites of Trieste and instead took showers and cooled off before heading out to find dinner. 

The view from our room: Arco di Riccardo, the only remaining part of Trieste's Roman walls, built 33-32 BCE. 

After dinner, we visited the harbor and, with a bazillion other tourists (not shown), watched the sun set.

Ta da! 14 out of the day's 15.7 hot miles, 1,750' up, 1,950' down. 

St. Ulrich to Trieste, Day 16 - Gradisca d'Isonzo to Duino Aurisina

Monday July 6, Gradisca d'Isonzo to Duino Aurisina

We saw so much variety across 17 miles that it's hard to believe the photos below were all taken on the same day.

I lost my sun hat somewhere between the previous day's effort to outrun the rain and packing up in the morning, so we started with a walk to a grocery store in search of apples and a hat. We found the former, but not the latter. S ordered a new sun hat that would be waiting for me when we returned to Steinebach, but for the rest of the trip we shared his hat.

It was nice to see some of Gradisca's fortifications by daylight before we headed across the Isonzo river.

This photograph on a trail sign in Poggio Terza Armata, across the river from Gradisca, was our first view of the Adriatic from the trail, but it didn't really count.

Sound on to hear the doggie gossip chain announce our arrival as we climbed the hill. Alas, I started filming too late to capture the blue wiffle ball while it was still in the pug's jaws (look closely and you'll see it on the ground next to the coughing dog). We're laughing because it's hard to take a dog seriously when it can't decide whether you're a fetch partner or a mortal enemy.

The hills south of Gradisca are covered with stone walls, many built by Italian soldiers during WWI. Trail signage outlined much of the military history...

...while the small-town privately-operated Museo Grande Guerro in San Martino del Carso documents the devastation of the war on the environment and civilian population here. 

Hello, Romea Strata.

Hello, Alpe Adria...

The climate shifted from humid in Gradisca to arid atop the ridge.

Trails and roads passed from scrub and woods to small towns.

Our first glimpse of the sea wasn't a great view.

A steep descent led us past WWI tunnels that enabled lookouts in multiple directions.

Our second view of the Adriatic, from the end of one of the tunnels, was better. The land beyond it is probably Croatia, with hills still blocking our view of Trieste and Slovenia.

The acrophobe found the descent to the river valley destabilizing but manageable. Being back on relatively flat ground meant I could stop and appreciate small details like this dor beetle.

Shout out to all of the public fountains we enjoyed, from Rizzios in the Dolomites to this one in Jamiano in Friuli.

Another long-distance trail: Verikala SPDT recognizes the centuries-long historic presence of Slovenians in Italy.

We had seen signs all day warning against starting fires in this part of Friuli. Our penultimate hill-climb showed us the consequences. 

We reached the top of the ridge, and at last had a view of the Adriatic down the hill. 

As we descended, the sea spread out before us. Here's a view toward Villagio del Pescatore in the front and the harbor of Monfalcone in the back, industrial ports where tankers bring oil from the Strait of Hormuz to pipe into Europe.

This humongous critter is probably a European Giant Steppe grasshopper (Prionotropis hystrix), listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.

After some more scrubby woods,... 

...we emerged in Duino. After a mile or so tromping through a ritzy neighborhood full of houses that must have overlooked the sea, we saw a public access down to the water. 

We reached the Adriatic. Actually touching the water was more complicated than we had time or energy for. Not shown to the left, around the small inlet--dozens of people diving of the rocky pier.

After celebratory Sprudel and tiramisu, we headed back uphill. There are two Duino castles, one from the 11th c. (shown here--the gate was locked, but S was tall enough to take this photo by reaching over the stone wall) and one from the 14th c. We got close enough to the latter to read that Franz Liszt performed there while visiting Rainer Maria Rilke.

The Rilke Trail begins behind the 14th-c. castle. 

No cars, no bikes, and especially NO BRASS INSTRUMENTS (or maybe just bugles) are allowed. Shhhh.

The Rilke Trail is about as scenic as a trail overlooking the sea can be.

10x zoom to appreciate the umbrellas at sea level:

The Sistiana marina. We stayed up high in Duino Aurisina and had a less glamorous but more budget-friendly view of the freeway through town. Tomorrow, Trieste.

Ta da! 17 miles, 1,850' up, 1,700' down.