Today I went for a little daytrip heading north toward the 3 Country Corner of Italy, Slovenia and Austria, located in the Friuli region of Italy. I left Brazzano heading to the north on SS356 passing by the beautiful and historic Longobardo city of Cividale de Friuli with its ancient bridge (destroyed and rebuilt in and after WW I) toward Tarcento having the Julian Alps to the right and the Isonzo River Plain to the left. A number of lovely villages are on the way, some little bridges to pass, arriving in and passing through, the city of Tarcento to reach the main North – South road, besides the A23 Autostrada not to far away and parallel, the SS13 heading north towards Austria.

At this point the road is sneaking its way through the proper pre-Alps, following the winding valley floor, steep mountain sides left and right beginning to come closer to the first rate road.

I am turning off to the left at the village of Moggio into the Val d' Aupa, a smaller road without middle or side lines and at times very good and at times not so. The road follows mostly a river with rusty bridges serving nearby villages. Very scenic and almost no traffic. I stopped frequently to take photos before reaching the village of Pontebba, with its scenic city center, where a number of restaurants and cafes beg to stop and visit. Pontebba is as well the start off point for the fabulous Nassfeldpass towards Austria.

On SS13 I turned right and south to the village of Chiusaforte then turning left heading east towards the Lago de Predil lake, into the Canale d' Raccola valley, into the Julian Alps, to chase the awesome canyon with even better road surface and zero traffic. After a while I turned around as I knew the Slovenian and Austrian borders at the end of this canyon still to be closed and I had to go back the way I came down south.

Back on SS13 I went south again to the village of Resiutta to turn left and east into the Valle di Resia, heading back into the Julian Alps and towards Slovenia. At the village of Gnva I turned right following a very small, very twisty, very awesome road heading over twisty turnies through a dense forest up a steep mountain with a plenty of hairpin corners. Totally awesome.

Just after the pass and at the small village of Sella Carpizza are the remnants of an old airfield where during WWI Italian biplanes took of to fight the war and Germans on the other side of the hill.

From then on it was backtracking through the awesome forest and twisties, back on SS13 heading south and then SS356 to pass through Tarcento, a slow ride enjoying the very scenic route. Chividale de Friuli begged to be visited but I was on my merry way home arriving back in Brazzano after some five hours and 250km of pure pre Alps and Julian Alps bliss.

I placed some images onto my Instagram account #knorkemopete.

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www.andreaswmatthes.com living in Friuli, Northern Italy