Cividale and Kobarid

Cividale (pronounced chee-vee-dah-lay) is in Italy near the Slovenia border in a region called Friuli. It’s a Roman city once ruled by a descendant of Julius Caesar.

Just inside the old city wall is a stone bridge across the Natsione River called The Devil’s Bridge, built in 1441.  Legend has it that in order to complete the stone bridge, which was taking a very long time and had many problems, the city made a pact with the devil.  The Devil said that he would finish the bridge but only if the devil would win the soul of the first creature to cross it, assuming it would be a person.  The city leaders thought to cheat the devil and sent an animal across first.  There is some discussion as to whether it was a cat or a pig but either way the devil got the animal’s soul.  To this day animal squeals are heard in the middle of the night.

The original bridge was destroyed to prevent soldiers from crossing it during WWI but it was finally rebuilt in 1980.  

We stepped inside the Duomo di Cividale briefly before visiting the Monestera di Santa Mariana in Vello and the Temple of Longobard. The Scandinavians settled here in 568 and built the Temple.  The word Longobard comes from Long Beard.  This is another legend. The women were left to defend the city.  The matriarch got a spiritual message that they need to look like men.  So they pulled their long hair around to the front of their face and tied it to look like a beard.  They saved the city without any bloodshed.  They had ‘long beards’.

The interior of the monastery has walls covered with faded frescoes that they are trying to restore to the original pictures.  They are using digital models, following the style and colors from that era and using their imagination to bring the frescoes back to life.

Before the deluge of rain in the afternoon we hiked up to Slap Kozjak, a tall and beautiful waterfall.  Along the way we passed more bunkers carved into the mountainside from WWI.

We also visited the WWI Museum and learned about the Austro-Hungary push to take over Italy and the devastation of that war.

Just as we wanted to leave the museum the rain finally fell in huge deluges.  We got soaked running back and had to turn around and do it again because I dropped my glasses along the way.  We found them but came in soaked through and through despite raincoats.

On the whole a good day except for that last run!