The sunny terrace of the Mama Angela wine bar is the perfect place to take in the splendor of Gorizia’s Piazza della Vittoria. My train from Venice took over two hours to get here, and now I can hardly believe I’m still in Italy. I’m sipping a delicious Slovenian orange wine, other customers are chatting mostly in the local dialect and Slovenian, and across the square are a beautiful Baroque church, a monumental Fountain of Neptune, and romantic pastel-colored palaces, all dating back to when this was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
But Victory Square’s glory days are long gone. These days, Gorizia is one of those rare hidden gems that simply isn’t on the radar of most tourists, or even most Italians. At the end of World War II, the city was unceremoniously divided between post-Mussolini Italy and communist Yugoslavia. A brutal metal barrier, topped with barbed wire and guarded by armed soldiers, separated homes and families, as happened in Berlin, but its fate received little attention from the world’s media. That’s all about to change.
Thousand-year-old Gorizia and Slovenia’s Nova Gorica – an idealistic “New Gorizia” founded in 1947 on the other side of the border – have managed to make a bold move together to become the first-ever European Capital of Culture combining cities in two countries.
Gorizia is currently one of those rare hidden gems that is simply not on the radar of most tourists, or even most Italians.
From February 2025, an ambitious programme of 600 eclectic events – including music, dance, art, theatre, cinema, sport, fashion, ecology and gastronomy – will reflect this “borderless” theme. Although tourists from all over the world will be welcomed with open arms, official organiser Romina Kocina tells me: “Hopefully Borderless will create a new, single identity for the two cities, the perfect, lasting legacy for a European Capital of Culture.” Gorizia filmmaker Matteo Oleotto puts it more simply: “For me, the two cities have always been one, with locals travelling back and forth without ever thinking about which country they are in. But that has never been recognised by the government. So I hope that becoming the legitimate European Capital of Culture will change all that for the young people who live here.”
The full calendar of events will be announced in October, and the official opening on February 8, 2025 will be a huge party in the emblematic Piazza della Transalpina, which is still divided in two: one half in Slovenia’s Nova Gorica and the other in Italy’s Gorizia. I get here early to cross the border and explore the two Gorizias before the crowds arrive, making sure to always have my passport with me as it’s still mandatory in the EU.
Gorizia seduces me from the moment I walk down Via Rastello, lined for centuries with mansions and boutiques, the commercial centre of what the Habsburgs called “the Nice of Austria”. This is a city that always tries to deliver on its promises, but doesn’t always succeed. While many shops are closed and for sale, some exciting initiatives show that the locals are really counting on the future capital of culture effect.
A beautiful former Liberty-style hardware store, Casa Krainer now houses temporary art exhibitions and installations; a centuries-old restaurant has been converted into a stylish yet affordable B&B, 1848 – Chef’s Rooms (double room €90); and Mercatino del Usato is an Aladdin’s cave of recycled and vintage knick-knacks.
In Piazza della Vittoria, I rent a bike that can be left on either side of the border and head to Smart Space, a state-of-the-art multimedia museum that offers the perfect introduction to Gorizia’s complex history, including stunning virtual reality experiences of when the region saw some of the deadliest fighting of World War I. In A Farewell to Arms , Ernest Hemingway’s protagonist, Frederic, lives in a house in Gorizia with a fountain and shady trees in a walled garden.
In Nova Gorica the contrasts are direct. An airy, green garden city inspired by Le Corbusier, created just 75 years ago as a socialist utopia
Smart Space’s sustainable CariGogreen project offers cycle routes into the countryside along the Slovenian border, with an audio guide recounting stories of the 1916 fighting, but I cycle to a crossing point in town where a former Italian border post has been converted into the fascinating Lasciapassare/Prepustnia exhibition, offering an oral history of Gorizians stranded on both sides of the border during the 1947 partition. Across the road, the Slovenian border post has a more light-hearted Smuggling Museum, dedicated to black market contraband, with a fun Escape Room.
In Nova Gorica itself, the contrasts are immediately noticeable. An airy, green garden city inspired by Le Corbusier, it was created 75 years ago as a socialist utopia, with modern apartment blocks, straight boulevards, municipal theatres and exhibition halls – but no churches until the breakup of Yugoslavia.
The population is also young and there is a large student community. And while local Slovenians flock to Gorizia for the history, culture and food, Italians flock the other way for a taste of nature. The fast-flowing Soča River is perfect for kayak races and rafting, while the surrounding countryside and forests form a maze of cycle paths and hiking trails. Further afield, in the Vipava Valley, lie the picturesque vineyards that have put Slovenia on the wine map for their innovative natural and orange wines.
In the evenings, lively Nova Gorica is packed with craft beer pubs, music bars and burger joints, but for a taste of the region’s traditional cuisine, I head back to the restaurants of what Slovenians nostalgically call Old Gorizia on the Italian side. Top picks include Rosenbar, elegant but reasonably priced, whose kitchen has been run for over 30 years by one of the doyennes of the Slow Food movement, Michela Fabbro. Romantic Vecia Gorizia is in the old Jewish quarter. The menu at Antica Osteria al Sabotino changes weekly, using seasonal local “locavore” ingredients from the adjacent food market, and can include delicious, comforting traditional dishes such as friscoa Montasio cheese and potato pancake; jotbean and sauerkraut soup and the Mitteleuropa classic: goulash with polenta.
Owner Mauro Gubana says: “I can’t wait for the Capital of Culture to start, because the border controls we all grew up with seem to be finally disappearing.”
Transportation and accommodation were provided by PromoTurismo FVG