Karst – Gifts of nature

The manor used to be a summer residence, but today, in its beautiful surroundings, it is one of the most popular places to get married and celebrate a wedding with an excellent feast prepared in the local restaurant. Culinary in the manor offers us a walk through the land of the senses, tasting unusual combinations of dishes, served with original decorations, where each plate tells its own story. The recipes are based on the traditional Vipava culinary tradition, but intertwined with an unusual combination of ingredients. So our plate can include homemade bread and crispy poppy seeds with venison carpaccio on a bed of arugula and smoked cottage cheese, unbending rice with travisiano, excellent beef tagliatto and, for dessert, homemade ice cream and panna cotta with persimmon topping. The restaurant is open every day from 12:00 to 23:00 except Monday and Tuesday. However, it is best to announce our arrival in advance.

Afternoon on the lawn
In order to experience the karst world as much as possible, let's move on to Komno, which is one of the typical karst villages. During the drive, let's observe sinkholes and trees bent by the storm, and turn onto one of the side field paths and walk through the meadows, which offer us the most gifts at this time. Let's collect fresh dandelions and trumpets, from which we will prepare a slightly different salad. Let's not forget to pluck the wild garlic - čemaž, whose smell takes us to the karst mountains, where it prefers to grow. For the perfection of the flavors, we also need ingredients for warm zabela, which we prepare from Karst prosciutto or some other Karst meat, and of course a glass of teran, which we can buy at one of the many tourist farms or wine cellars along the way. If nothing else, let's drive to the Pipan vineyard in Komno, where we can taste different types of wines and their homemade delicacies in their cellar. The settlement of Komen developed on a slightly elevated plateau with a nice baroque church of St. Jurija from the 18th century and is also a popular spot for cyclists who continue their journey towards Kobjeglava and Pliskovica or decide on a longer trip across Gorjanska and all the way to Sesljan (Sistiano) on the Italian side. Wherever our journey takes us, we must not miss the charismatic Štanjel, who charms every visitor with the picturesqueness and diversity of his cultural heritage. Its stone houses and narrow streets are terraced towards the top of the 363 meter high Turn hill. While walking through the village, we can observe stone gutters, entrance portals, wells, small and large squares, and visit the most dominant elements of Štanjelo: the church of St. Danijela with its characteristic lemon-shaped bell tower, which was built in the 15th century, and the Renaissance Baroque castle, which was first owned by the counts of Gorizia, later by the Habsburgs, Cobenz and other families, but today in the castle you can experience the inimitable color and image of the Karst through the eyes of the world-famous graphic artist and painter Lojzet Spacal, who has a permanent exhibition of his works there.

Evening in the castle garden
We learn what the interior of a real Karst house is like and how they lived in it when visiting the Romanesque or Karst House, where for 2.50 euros (1.50 euros for children) from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. you can see the ethnological collection. If, however, for 1.50 euros we climb the Kobdiljski tower, which is also located on one of the narrow streets of Štanjel, we can look over the colorful karst landscape from a height and buy a small souvenir of this beautiful place in the shop on the ground floor of the tower. But the story is not over yet, because another Štanjel gem is hidden there - the Ferrari Garden, which was designed by the architect Maks Fabiani for Enrico Ferrari and is today classified as a monument of national importance. The romantic atmosphere conjured up by a free walk through the park can be extended by sitting on the garden benches and spiced up by a walk over the Venetian-style bridge over the pool in the park. And then we quickly rush home to delight ourselves and our loved ones with a full plate of colorful dandelion salad with trumpets and other Karst delicacies.