We were already so delighted with the location we picked for Lipizzaner Lodge, being 20 mins from the Lipica Horse farm, with a secret forest walk to Predjama Castle, just down the road from the Postojna, Skocjan and so many other enormous show caves, within easy reach of the seaside, the Soca River, the Mountains & the Lakes AND just 30 mins to Ljubljana too!

So really no need to get greedy, but our eyes almost popped out when driving along the motorway from Trieste, our closest airport to the Lodge, when we spotted a road sign to turn off for Prosecco!

Well, Green Slovenia already has 7 unique wine regions, so surely it cannot also be possible our guests will have the choice to go sipping Prosecco wine, where it is made too!

This little wine van obscured the entrance so we missed it first time!

And indeed it turned out NOT to be the case!

Prosecco IS actually WHERE the ancestor grape, (a bit like a Great Grandpa Grape) of the modern Prosecco wine comes from, but nowadays the main Prosecco wine growing districts are in the neighbouring Italian region between Venice and Trieste.. Still very reachable indeed for a daytrip from the Lodge, by the way, but not the 35 mins on the motorway direct to Prosecco!

But the pretty little village of Prosecco, perched on top of the high Adriatic cliffs above Trieste is best known in the world of wine for being an Italian extension of the Slovenian Teran Karst wine region, with a little twist that we will tell you about too!

Lots of visitors to Trieste will visit Prosecco, going up the hill for a spot of wine tasting, but probably not even have a second thought about Slovenia..

Technically they will still be in Italy, per the map, but Slovenia is not great at marketing itself so these visitors to Prosecco and even Trieste might not perceive the incredibly strong bonds and connection this snippet of the Adriatic coast has with the most beautiful Green country in Europe..

They both have the modern day Italian look, bit dig a bit deeper and you will find Slovenia everywhere!

Several terraces to enjoy the sea views from and the city of Trieste is below and on the left..

Well, we are neither Italian nor Slovenian, so we have no problem to point out how the border line that carved the city of Trieste away from Slovenia and into Italy after WW2 is one of the most riduculous border lines on the map.. have a loof for yourself!

One of the fascinating features of visiting this mini region on top of a cliff is that whilst you WILL indeed be in Italy, the local people here will have deep, long running connections to Slovenia and the Slovenian language!

OK, it does not even really matter so much today, with open borders and everything being inside the EU, but it is interesting none the same!

Well, we found an amazing wine tour in Prosecco, with an amazing lady who will also will explain these connections to you, whilst you get to taste her fantastic wines and tapas too!

Squeeze your car into one of the 2 spaces next to the vineyard or park in Prosecco village and walk here, cos not far..

Maybe you know the British "Travel Man" TV show where a presenter and chum go on short city weekend trips away and during the "Trieste" episode they came up the hill from the city to do some wine tasting with Katrin at the Klin Vineyard in Prosecco!

We saw the show and made a note to finally go visit Prosecco and check out Klin one day and to be honest with you, we still had a clinging hope that maybe there was just one little vine of Prosecco producing some very old wine in the village!!

What we experienced was so much more and now we are gonna tell you all about it!

This wonderful wine cellar sits on the edge of the highest cliffs in the Mediterrranean above Trieste..

Wine Tasting at Klin Vineyard in Prosecco..

Have another quick look at a map before you go to Prosecco and you will see it is ridiculously close to the Lodge as the crow flies, just tucked inside the latest border with Italy and you can whizz there on the mototway in just 35 mins without even needing to pay a toll in Italy as it is so close to the border..

There are multiple other ways you could get to Prosecco along ancient country roads or leave the motorway exactly on the border with Italy at a lovely little old Slovenian town called Opcina, now in Italy and drive along the country road to Prosecco.

Klin is not quite hanging off the edge of the cliff, but you will need to drive through Prosecco and past a duck pond to get to the two narrow spaces just outside the vineyard where you can leave the car and walk down into another world of wine!

Katrin is a wonderful hostess, full of stories and information paired with great wines & local Tapas..

Look carefully for the Klin sign and maybe you will prefer to park in one of the small car parks in Prosecco old town and walk the 10 minutes here instead.

Katrin will greet you on one of the terraces of the vineyard her grandfather created here when he built the cellar.

The views are absolutely stunning and you get a sea panorama over 3 countries across the Bay of Trieste, where else could you see three different countries in one sea view?

So from left to right you can see Croatia, Piran in Slovenia, Koper, then the city of Trieste in Italy nestled up against the cliffs and looking to the right you can see as far as the Soca river Delta and Grado in the distance!

Look carefully for the little Klin wooden sign and the Wine Cellar is down the grass track..

Katrin's Prosecco tours take around 2 and a half hours and she will first show around the vineyard and village and then you will come back to do some wine tasting, accompanied with what we call Slovenian Tapas, a plate full of local meats and cheeses from the local farm.

We will not spoil the tour for you by telling too much detail, but perhaps the most amazing thing about this place is Katrin is a one woman wine making machine, doing EVERYTHING herself, BY HAND!

You might listen to her vibrant tones & flowing hair and get Italian vibes, but she will very clearly explain she considers herself Slovenian and remind you that her Slovenian speaking Grandpa was born here, NOT in Italy, but in Slovenia, when it was part of the Austrian empire!

The other hugely interesting thing about this part of the world is it sits on the edge of the Slovenia Karst Teran wine region and Katrin will explain how vines can grow in the lush ruby red mineral rich soil deposits that litter the Karst limestone rock from which she produces several wines with those unique Slovenian Teran and Vitovska grapes, typical for the Karst, but in her own special way!

But that other special thing we wanted to tell you about is the Prosecco cliff side is where the Karst limestone rock plateau ends and falls away with different clay soil, offering completly different growing conditions for OTHER types of grapes and this is where the Prosecco grape once grew!

Bread from the local bakery and fresh cuts & cheeses from a local farm..

Katrin has produced some fantastic wines here and will explain how she has reacted and developed her wines based on the different weather conditions over recent years.

She has made an amazing Orange wine from Chardonnay and local Vitovska and Malvazija grapes, which are ALL white, but the skins are left on in the process to colour the wine.

Katrin has named her wines with personal stories that you will hear all about, whilst munching on delicious local meats and cheeses from her friend's farm and herbs & vegetables picked on site..

OK, we will stop here, the rest is for you to discover and enjoy.. But did we mention Klin is amazing and the views are spectacular?!!

Like we also said, Katrin does all the work here in the vineyard herself, so you MUST book a tour ahead, either on Facebook on on her website, so in the summer you should be able to get on a tour, but during the wine picking season usually at the start of September, the tours will be harder to book, as she has to watch the weather carefully to decide when to pick the grapes!

Amazingly, Katrin works the entire vineyard alone and with no machines..

We understand why visitors might feel more comfortable sticking to one country on their hollibubbles, but this part of the world is just SO small and SO interconnected, that if you were here over the centuries it would be Roman, Venetian, Napoleonic, Austrian, Slovenian and now Italian, so you really do not need to be too hung up on what country you are in today and just do the things you enjoy the most!

And there will be other visitors who will really enjoy popping over the border into Italy from the Lodge too!

Cos we live in Slovenia, we can easily see how "Slovenian" it all looks and feels here in Prosecco, but equally it also has a strong Italian look now too, so highly interesting!

We mentioned the pretty neighbouring town of Opcina and would recommend you combine a trip to Prosecco with maybe a coffee or a meal in another one of the ex Slovenian border towns.

Spring blossoms and lots of little vineyards hang off this huge sea cliff..

There is an added bonus too here in Opcina where an antique blue tram begins it's journey down the steep hill into Trieste city centre, with fantastic city seaside cliff views, so why not have a trundle on the tram down and back?

Equally you could take the curvy road which runs directly from Prosecco down the cliff to Trieste to visit the city OR the amazing coastal castle of Miramare, which sits directly below Klin and can be seen far below from the top terrace!

Mirimare is a stunning white Austrian empire style pad with amazing gardens, so another perfect combination for a really fab day out with the Klin vineyard.

But there is yet another showstopper literally just down the road from Prosecco on top of this Karst cliff, the huge Grotte Gigante cave with numerous steps down into the Karst underworld..

We absolutely love Trieste, with it's seafront, grand buildings, combined history and tutti frutti craziness and maybe it is the only place in this part of the world you might have heard about, but now you can see why we bang on so much about all the amazing days out you could do from the Lodge, cos with just this article you have more than can fit into a special, unexpected day out at the Adriatic coast!