A visit to Castelmonte

DAY 19***

We took the opportunity on St Stephen's Day (Boxing Day) to visit family in Conoglano, about an hour away from Tarvisio. From there it is only a local trip to the Santuary of the Blessed Virgin at Castelmonte, in Cividale.

Cassaco, Conoglano, Cividale, Treppo Grande, Vendoglio - this is truly home turf - these sights would have been regular viewing by DW's parents when they were growing up in the area.

This scene above is a view from the rear of the Aunt's farm, looking up towards the mountains where Tarvisio is located.
















A short car trip to Cividale took us to the Santuario di Madonna Di Monte in the Natisone Valley. Here for at least 1500 years, it is said that Castelmonte has been a fortress and sanctuary. It is the oldest in Friuli and one of the first Christian churches. Its true origins are still cloudy although ancient pavements discovered in the 1960's would lend support to the old tradition of a site here in the fifth century. Go see castelmonte here.

Castelmonte is also the church where one of our family from Australia chose to get married, so there was that association too.

DW's mother had asked us to deliver her renewal of subscription to the monthly magazine known by its recipients as il bollettino. 

Here she is after completing said task, to prove that the deed in fact had been done!

Being the feast day of St Stephen, we all took the opportunity to attend 11am Mass which was the third of the morning, and packed as full as the previous 2 services. In Italy, Christmas is always spent with family and very few people venture out of their homes (except for attending Christmas services). St Stephen's Day proved to be the opposite - the site was packed with both locals and tourists!

After returning to Conoglano, we spent the afternoon with family and again, a good time was had by all!

How do you do Christmas??

Day 18***

Hope you had a good one too.......

Fusine @ Tarvisio

DAY 15
We spent today mostly on our own - exploring a bit of the local countryside.

On route to Slovenia, via the state highway SS54, are the Fusine Lakes. There are 2, but we only visited the lower one.

if you enlarge this photo you can see the location of the lakes.

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DH enjoyed driving the cousin's Alfa 147 Diesel, and with its sharp cornering, the road to the lakes was less traumatic despite the ice on the road (can't you tell we don't ski??).

The lower lake was picturesque & all was very still, so quiet in fact that the sound made by DS & DD skidding rocks across the lake made a deafening, eerie sound, almost alien-like.......




















DD & DS had a go at standing on the frozen lake, but DS's addition started the ice cracking and they were ordered off by their concerned parents!!

All in all an enjoyable morning!

In the afternoon, DH had agreed to assist one of the cousins with photographing the shop as they are planning a website soon (excellent! so now we can order their great foodie items direct!!)

The rest of us spent the afternoon on the bottom of the ski slopes - the fields would not be open until Saturday (Christmas Eve) and today was only Thursday.

<----------------ski field at the base of Monte Lussari near Camporosso.

Still, they look like they enjoyed it.....

Family..... with Christmas

DAY 12,13,14***

Departing Salzburg by train allowed us to view the snow covered country on route to the other side of Austria. We arrived at Villach in the early afternoon, and after touching base with the relatives, took a taxi across the border to Tarvisio, Italy.

Tarvisio is a small town in the Julian Alps, busy with skiers in the Winter, and hikers from Austria and Slovenia in the Summer. It is heavily reliant on the tourist trade, and family were bemoaning the lack of snow so far (for us non-skiers it was still plenty!!).

This is the old railway line, now coverted to a cycleway, the Alpe Adria Cycle Track, which runs between Austria, Slovenia and Italy, going as far down in Italy as Grado. It runs (from Slovenia) about 177km, and from Austria, 175km. It is a project designed to link the Alps to the seaside.

This trip was all about seeing family and spending time with them over the Christmas festive season. DW has plenty of cousins in this northern part of Italy, her mother having been the youngest of 11 children.



So for those of you reading this who are not interested in the family shots, you have permission to skip this next part...........

We caught up with everyone, from our oldest.........











to our youngest...........

from the tech savvy..........

















to the slalom skiers.......

(DD & DS missed out on having a ski lesson with Laura - sorry kids, hopefully next time....)




                                                                               We had the chance to gabber with all the girls.........

and fool around with all the boys.........

All of them have businesses in the town, so this is a free plug for them (Elena, mandi mi un foto del tuo negozio!)

Some of them DW had not seen since she was a child.........

and some, she had not met at all.........

 

We were all set for a wonderful 10 days in this region, with family, and a white (well... close enough) Christmas!!