Hrastovlje

We hired a car over the long weekend, most importantly to visit our daughter´s new school over the border in Trieste, Italy, and to make some large purchases (hello, Ikea) but also to do a couple of touristy things.

On Saturday, myself, my husband and the three year-old headed off to Hrastovlje, a short, twenty-minute drive from Koper. It´s one of the little towns that dot the hills and mountains of Slovenia, distinct clusters of terracotta roofs among the green of the trees, usually punctuated with a church tower. If you´re interested, the rough pronunciation is Hras-toe-lee-ay (the v acts like a w if it comes before a consonant, excepting before r, and j is like y as in yak).

First stop was Gostilna Švab (pronounced Shvarb) for lunch. A gostilna is equivalent to an Italian trattoria, usually a country inn that serves home-style dishes. We began with half a litre of wine (of course – it´s cheaper than non-alcoholic drinks). Well, OK, not quite began for me because I had a free sample of wine at the supermarket in the morning. Living in Europe can be tough. We shared a salad, and the waiter brought out a loaf of very hot, crispy bread. I had ravioli with cheese and grilled mushrooms, and my husband had pork chops with potatoes and dried peas cooked with garlic and other spices, but we shared everything between the three of us. All of it was good - hearty, simple and satisfying. I managed to ask for an extra plate in Slovene, and the waiter told me ˝Bravo!˝ (they use a lot of Italian expressions here on the border with Italy). We rounded it off with coffee, which comes very strong in a tiny cup, ice cream for the toddler – and then the waiter brought us complementary drinks with the bill, blueberry liqueur for the adults and lemonade for our son.

Then it was a short walk up the road to the main tourist attraction, the Church of the Holy Trinity. It was built in the later fifteenth century, and, like many churches in the mountain villages, was not just a place of worship, but doubled as a fortified sanctuary against Turkish raids. Inside the little church are almost intact fifteenth century frescoes depicting the days of creation and the story of Adam and Eve, Christ´s passion, and, most notably, a fine example of a Dance of Death. Just what we needed to contemplate after all that gluttony and wine-drinking. Alcuin was very well-behaved while we examined the frescoes, and even momentarily excited when he thought he was going to see a painting of Jesus and his twelve opossums. But of course the real excitement was running around the courtyard looking out of every arrow hole, and piling up rocks. I wonder how many three year-olds helped fight off Turkish raiders over the centuries?

Note the man on the right trying to bribe Death!

It was a pretty hot afternoon, but my husband wanted to be sure he wasn´t under the effects of the lunchtime wine before he drove home, so we gamely walked around the outside of the fortifications, which seems to be a popular dog-walking place for the locals. Then we popped back to the church to buy a bottle of the local wine for sale (see the vineyards in the photo) – 4 euros for a bottle of mušcat, a dessert wine – because it´s important to support the local economy.

Home for as much of a rest as one can get with a manic three-year old, who thankfully went to bed early, leaving us to enjoy mušcat on our balcony.

Touristy info: Entrance fee to the church is three euros, and includes an audio presentation in several choices of language while you look around. It´s open during the most obvious visiting hours, but there´s a phone number posted on the gate to call if it´s shut. The menu at Gostilna Švab is in several languages, even if the English version is... interesting. But you´ll get the gist of it. The online menu is only in Slovene.