Gorizia from a new angle: a bucolic walk to Villa de Nordis

Art & Culture Active

26 July 2018

Art & Culture Active

Gorizia from a new angle: a bucolic walk to Villa de Nordis

On a fresh July afternoon I had the pleasure of taking an unusual stroll to discover the bucolic soul of Gorizia together with a group of twenty walkers. Starting from the ancient pomerium of the city, we explored the area that developed alongside the river Isonzo, a favourite destination for the Bourbons of France went they went riding, during their stay in the city. We walked along quiet tracks dominated by the historic Monte Sabotino and the Oslavia Ossuary, surrounded by vineyards, olive groves, mulberry and cherry trees, orchards and lavender. A few metres away, we could hear the flow of the waters of the Isonzo and looking out from two viewpoints, we saw the attractive stone bridge of Solkan, just over the border in Slovenia. In some places the Castle of Gorizia and the monastery of Kostanjevica na Krasu, also in Slovenia, could be seen well.

The final destination of the walk was Villa de Nordis. This is an aristocratic country house dating back to 1840 and associated with the extraordinary Countess Lyduska de Nordis. Few people know of the existence of this villa which hosted the family of Winston Churchill and which managed to change the border at the end of the Second World War thanks to the determination and appeal of its owner: the villa and the park, in fact, were destined to be incorporated in the Socialist Republic of Marshal Tito. How? Word is of a special friendship with Winston Churchill and secret parties for the British and Americans within the villa. First of all, the current owners, to whom the Countess left her “holiday home”, showed us some rooms (part of the interiors are undergoing renovation) and they told us about this enterprising and charismatic woman, adding many curious anecdotes about the countess and the complicated life of living close to a border, before and after the war. I leave you a small photographic overview of this unusual ecotourism experience to discover a secret and hidden Gorizia, which tells of an original and unusual border story, involving seduction and diplomacy and of ancient historical landscapes, those of the Austrian Nice: this the nickname of Gorizia until the early twentieth century, as it was a favourite place for the holidays of the Viennese nobility.

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Sabrina Pellizon

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I began my experience in the inbound tourism world as a tour leader and gradually became a regional nature/environmental tour guide.

I began my experience in the inbound tourism world as a tour leader and gradually became a regional nature/environmental tour guide. I’m also involved in educational activities with donkeys and I love walking at the pace of Noè, my little adopted donkey and a companion in our explorations of my Preval. I adore informing and amazing our guests, pampering and accompanying them as I tell them all the curious and original things to know about our environs.