Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
610 km from Divača to Divača, about 10 h 55 of riding. On the way it passes Idrijska Bela - Belca Water Barrier on the, Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power, Keutschacher See and back through Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,000 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses Slovenia, Italy and Austria - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Scenic road chapters
Slovenia Vrsic Pass Road
Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did. Water arrives beside the road and stays for 105 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
Rider note
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
Chapter facts
Length
134 km
Named road
Slovenia Vrsic Pass Road
Pass
Vrsic Pass
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Škocjan Caves
Underneath the sleepy stone villages of the Slovenian Karst, a river called the Reka plunges into the earth and carves one of the largest underground canyons known anywhere. The Škocjan Caves, a UNESCO site since 1986, are the reason the word karst became the scientific name for this kind of limestone landscape everywhere in the world. Inside, a narrow footbridge spans the Reka gorge far above the roaring water, the chamber walls disappear into darkness, and the scale is so huge that your mind struggles to accept it is all underground.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Škocjan Caves is where the day begins. Next is Idrijska Bela - Belca Water Barrier on the.
2. Idrijska Bela - Belca Water Barrier on the
Deep in a wooded gorge above Idrija, where the stream called Idrijska Bela tumbles over pale limestone, stands one of the strangest pieces of old engineering in Slovenia: a klavže, a water barrier built of massive dressed stone blocks across the narrow valley. Its job had nothing to do with power or flood control. Idrija's mercury mine, one of the two largest in the world for centuries, devoured timber for its shafts and smelters, and the forests close to town were soon exhausted. So the miners built these dams on mountain streams, let water build up behind them, piled cut logs in the bed below and then opened the gates. The released flood swept the timber all the way down to Idrija, where it was caught at a rake across the river.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Idrijska Bela - Belca Water Barrier on the comes up about 67 km into the recorded legs. Next is Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power, 70 km on.
3. Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power
Cividale del Friuli was founded as Forum Iulii, a market town established by Julius Caesar, and it gave its name to the whole region of Friuli. In 568, when the Lombards crossed the Alps and invaded Italy, Cividale was the first city they took, and it became the seat of their first duchy. The Lombards ruled much of Italy for two centuries, and Cividale preserves some of the finest traces of their culture. The Tempietto Longobardo, a small eighth-century chapel overlooking the river, holds a row of stucco female saints of extraordinary grace, among the most beautiful works of art of the early Middle Ages. It is the centrepiece of the UNESCO listing of the Longobards in Italy, Places of the Power, along with sites from Brescia to Benevento. The National Archaeological Museum displays jewellery, weapons and grave goods from Lombard tombs.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 168 km into the recorded legs you reach Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power. Next is Keutschacher See.
4. Keutschacher See
Keutschacher See is one of the warm little lakes of Carinthia, tucked into the rolling moraine country south of the Wörthersee, where glaciers of the last ice age left a jumble of hills, hollows and water. It is small and shallow, with reeds at the edges and pine and beech woods around it, and in summer it warms to a temperature that makes the Alpine lakes a few valleys away seem Arctic. Locals swim from jetties and lawns, and the nearby village of Keutschach am See is a quiet place of fewer than five hundred people.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Škocjan Caves closes the day.
Leg by leg
Škocjan Caves to Idrijska Bela - Belca Water Barrier on the
Škocjan Caves → Idrijska Bela - Belca Water Barrier on the is 67 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Idrijska Bela - Belca Water Barrier on the to Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power
Idrijska Bela - Belca Water Barrier on the → Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power is 101 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power to Keutschacher See
Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power → Keutschacher See is 134 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Keutschacher See to back through Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power
Keutschacher See → back through Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power is 135 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power to back through Idrijska Bela - Belca Water Barrier on the
back through Longobards in Italy. Places of the Power → back through Idrijska Bela - Belca Water Barrier on the is 96 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Idrijska Bela - Belca Water Barrier on the to Škocjan Caves
back through Idrijska Bela - Belca Water Barrier on the → Škocjan Caves is 76 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.