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S1 Family Hike & Trail 14.8 km

ROADBOOK

Roadbook S1 Family Hike & Trail — the course, trail by trail

14.8 km from PortoPiccolo, between the Sentiero Rilke and the Duino Karst: every CAI trail and every connecting section used by the race, in the order you come to them.

The S1 Family Hike & Trail starts at PortoPiccolo and returns there after 14.8 km, on the shortest of the loops that take on the Duino Karst. This page describes the course in the order you come to it: the CAI trails, the routes it shares for a stretch and the race’s own connecting sections.

From PortoPiccolo to the Sentiero Rilke

The S1 Family Hike & Trail also starts from the Bora Village at PortoPiccolo, with the same opening as the S1 Half Trail and the S1 Borderless Trail, but with no hurry at all. The start is at ‘Le botteghe’, inside PortoPiccolo, and the course drops down Strada della baia and Strada di PortoPiccolo to Sistiana Bay; from the bay a flight of stairs climbs up to the road, and the S.P. 3, on tarmac, leads to Piazza Barone Goffredo de Banfield, where the course joins the Sentiero Rilke. It is about 2.1 km, almost all on road. On the Sentiero Rilke, on the clearest days, the view reaches all the way to Istria: this is the picture you take home with you.

From here the course follows CAI 001, partly shared with the Alpe Adria Trail and, along the cliffs, with the Sentiero Rilke. These are separate routes that happen to run on the same ground here: sharing a stretch does not make them the same thing.

The Sentiero Rilke runs for just over two kilometres, suspended between sky and sea, along the Duino Cliffs Nature Reserve, between Sistiana/Sesljan and Duino/Devin. It was here, in the winter of 1912, that Rainer Maria Rilke — a guest of Princess Marie von Thurn und Taxis at Duino Castle — heard the first words of the Duino Elegies carried to him on the wind: ‘Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the hierarchies of angels?’ It is from these cliffs, too, that the Corsa della Bora takes its motto: ‘Being here is glorious’.

Duino and the Sentiero del Mitreo

The course follows the Sentiero Rilke as far as Duino/Devin and passes through the old village in front of Duino Castle, the residence of the princes of Thurn und Taxis, where, according to tradition, Dante was a guest before Rilke; beside the ruins of the old castle you can make out the White Lady, the rock shaped like a veiled woman.

From Duino the course takes CAI 001a — Sentiero del Mitreo. At the Mithraeum Cave, also known as the Mithraeum of Duino, it leaves CAI 001a and picks up CAI 033. Shortly afterwards comes the second race fork: here the S1 Family Hike & Trail turns off onto its own shorter loop, while the S1 Half Trail, S1 Borderless Trail, S1 TransKarst Ultra and S1 Bora Ultra carry on along CAI 033.

The short loop: from the forest tracks to CAI 008

Just after the Mithraeum of Duino the S1 Family Hike & Trail leaves CAI 033. It follows two forest tracks until it meets CAI 008, then continues towards the protohistoric settlement of Duino Stazione, one of the hillforts that dot the Duino Karst.

It is the way to get a feel for the real Karst without the physical toll of a demanding climb: the Family does not take on the Monte Ermada loop covered by the longer distances, only its lower slopes, with short ups and downs among pines and clearings and the Gulf appearing unexpectedly through the trees.

The return: Visogliano, Sistiana and PortoPiccolo

The course then picks up CAI 033 again towards the Visogliano/Vižovlje sports ground. This is also where the S1 Half Trail rejoins after the Ermada loop: from this point, shortly after the stretch that passes close to the Grotta Alexander, the two races share the same course.

From Visogliano the course passes through Villaggio Verde Tre, drops down to Sistiana and heads back to PortoPiccolo: the last kilometres are a smooth, runnable descent towards the sea, all the way to the Bora Village. Same finish line, same party and same medal as the day’s other races.

Technical sequence

PortoPiccolo roads, stairs and S.P. 3 → CAI 001 / Sentiero Rilke → CAI 001a → CAI 033 → forest tracks → CAI 008 → CAI 033 → non-CAI final stretch → PortoPiccolo

The race forks

The distances starting from PortoPiccolo split at precise points, checked against the official 2027 tracks.

  • S1 TransKarst Ultra / S1 Half Trail, S1 Borderless Trail and S1 Family Hike & Trail — split at the start, at around km 1.2: the S1 TransKarst Ultra climbs via the old start route, while the others head down to Sistiana Bay; the tracks come together again at around km 3.0 of the S1 Half Trail.
  • S1 Family Hike & Trail / S1 Half Trail — split shortly after the Mithraeum, at around km 8.05; the two tracks meet again at about km 8.66 of the S1 Family Hike & Trail, which corresponds to about km 17.22 of the S1 Half Trail.
  • S1 TransKarst Ultra and S1 Bora Ultra / S1 Half Trail and S1 Borderless Trail — split at Medeazza, at around km 10.4 of the S1 Half Trail and km 10.2 of the S1 Borderless Trail.
  • S1 Half Trail / S1 Borderless Trail — split at the Grotta del Motore, at around km 13.5 of the S1 Half Trail and km 13.3 of the S1 Borderless Trail.
  • S1 Borderless Trail / S1 TransKarst Ultra and S1 Bora Ultra — they merge again just after Monte Sambuco, at about km 15.9 of the S1 Borderless Trail and about km 34.8 of the S1 TransKarst Ultra.

Further reading

This description is editorial and is meant to help you understand how the course is put together, trail by trail. When it comes to actually following the route on the ground, whether in training or in the race, the official track and the course markings put out by the organisers are what count. Up-to-date distances, elevation gain, time barriers and refreshment points are published on the race page, S1 Family Hike & Trail 14.8 km; the trail network that all the Corsa della Bora courses are built on is described on the page The CAI trails of the Karst.