ROADBOOK

S1 Trieste Ultra Roadbook — the course, trail by trail

61.2 km from Trieste to PortoPiccolo, all through the night: every CAI trail and every race-specific connecting path, in the order you come to them.

The S1 Trieste Ultra starts in the centre of Trieste in the early evening and reaches PortoPiccolo after 61.2 km run entirely at night. This page follows the course in the order you come to it: the CAI trails, the other routes that run alongside it for a stretch, and the race’s own connecting paths. It is also the first half of the S1 Bora Ultra, which follows exactly the same course as far as PortoPiccolo.

From Trieste to the Val Rosandra

The urban prologue

It all begins in the heart of Trieste/Trst, while the city is still buzzing with life: a crossroads of Italian, Slavic, Germanic, Jewish and Greek cultures, where Joyce wrote Ulysses in the cafés of Via San Nicolò, Svevo dreamt up Zeno’s Conscience and Saba kept his bookshop on the very same street. The first kilometre crosses the old town at a controlled pace — Piazza Unità d’Italia, the Habsburg palaces, the lights along the Canal Grande — an urban prologue no other trail race can boast.

The night climb towards the Karst edge

Leaving the centre, the route climbs through the urban parks that make Trieste one of Italy’s greenest cities, crossing the Parco del Ferdinandeo towards the hills that form the natural amphitheatre the city nestles in. As you climb, Trieste spreads out beneath your feet in a pattern of lights reflected on the sea, with the Victory Lighthouse and the Molo Audace as landmarks in the dark; on clear winter nights you can just make out the snow-capped outlines of the Julian Alps across the Gulf.

The first CAI trail: no. 015 at Hervati

The first CAI trail you meet is CAI 015, at Hervati/Hrvati. From here the course enters the upper Val Rosandra/Dolina Glinščice. After leaving CAI 015, it follows a few connecting sections of the Vertikala SPDT to reach CAI 046, which it descends towards Bagnoli della Rosandra/Boljunec, at around km 13.

The Val Rosandra at night

The Val Rosandra is the only valley in Italy where a stream flows above ground across the Karst, within a nature reserve of remarkable biodiversity. Its sheer walls of white limestone, up to three hundred metres high, are the very ones on which Emilio Comici — the legendary Triestine climber and a pioneer of grade VI climbing — trained in the 1930s. At night the valley floor is a dark, damp corridor, with the sound of the stream to guide you.

From the Val Rosandra to Bottazzo

From Bagnoli the course continues on CAI 046 towards Crogole/Kroglje and the Vedetta di Crogole viewpoint. In this section it briefly overlaps with the Alpe Adria Trail and CAI 001, although these remain separate routes that share only a few stretches.

The course then joins CAI 001, passes the Cave of the Ancient Inscriptions and drops to the valley floor. After climbing back up an unnumbered path, it picks up CAI 039 and then rejoins CAI 001; sharing a few stretches with the Vertikala SPDT, it reaches Bottazzo/Botač, the last cluster of houses before the climb to the plateau.

From Bottazzo to the Opicina Obelisk

From Bottazzo the course climbs on forest tracks towards Basovizza/Bazovica. Here it picks up CAI 044 — Sentiero Ressel, returns to CAI 001, passes San Lorenzo/Jezero and carries on to the Obelisk at Opicina/Opčine. The geographical order is as follows, and it is worth bearing in mind as you study the track: Bottazzo, Basovizza, San Lorenzo, Obelisk.

This is the stretch along CAI 001 towards Sistiana that featured in the very first editions of the Corsa della Bora. You run with Trieste at your feet, a carpet of lights pulsing in the night, while on clear winter nights the snowy silhouettes of Mount Snežnik, Triglav and the Julian Alps stand out on the horizon.

From the Obelisk down to the sea at Barcola

At the Opicina Obelisk, a historic viewpoint over the Gulf, the course leaves CAI 001 and picks up CAI 012 — Sentiero Nicolò Cobolli, passing close to Monte Gurca and the cave of the same name. In this section the route also follows a short stretch of the Strada Napoleonica, the 1821 road that hangs like a balcony between the Karst edge and the sea.

After brief crossings or overlaps with CAI 001, the Alpe Adria Trail and the Vertikala SPDT, the course drops through the Bosco del Bovedo — a dense, steep wood plunging towards the sea — down to the Barcola/Barkovlje waterfront.

From Barcola to Contovello

From Barcola the course follows Viale Miramare and the seafront stretch known as the Topolini. Near Miramare it climbs towards the castle via the Scalinata di Sissi, the staircase Empress Elisabeth of Austria used to reach the park of the Habsburg residence commissioned by Archduke Maximilian and Charlotte of Belgium.

Still near Miramare, the course heads uphill on CAI 009, the trail linking Miramare and Contovello; its upper section overlaps with the Sentiero dei Pescatori/Ribiška pot. CAI 009 and the Sentiero dei Pescatori are not, however, interchangeable names for the whole section.

Contovello/Kontovel is a village of Karst stone houses surrounded by terraced vineyards where the Karst’s native grape varieties grow: Vitovska, Malvasia Istriana and Glera, the original Prosecco grape — the village of Prosecco itself lies just a few kilometres away. Behind you, the Gulf opens up a little more with every metre you climb.

From Contovello to PortoPiccolo: the finale along the Karst edge

From Contovello the course alternates between stretches of CAI 001 and connecting paths along the Karst edge. It crosses the Strada della Salvia/Žajbljeva pot and shares only part of the Aurisina nature trail (Percorso didattico di Aurisina/Učna pot Nabrežina). Near the Aurisina Cave industrial estate, close to the BRT/Bartolini depot, it leaves CAI 001.

It then reaches Borgo San Mauro on local roads, follows a short stretch of CAI 023 — Sentiero Tiziana Weiss, named after the Triestine climber who died aged 26 in 1978 on the Pale di San Martino — and continues on further connecting paths to PortoPiccolo. This closing section, shared by the four longest races of the Corsa della Bora, takes in the Vedetta Weiss, a viewing terrace 159 metres above the sea with a Gladio network bunker (1963–1970) at its foot, and the Costa dei Barbari, whose cliffs drop sheer into the water.

Run at night, coming in from Contovello, this finale has a primeval feel: the sound of the sea below your feet is your only compass before the plunge down to the Bora Village at PortoPiccolo.

Technical sequence

CAI 015 → Vertikala SPDT/connecting sections → CAI 046 → CAI 001 → non-CAI track → CAI 039 → CAI 001 → forest tracks → CAI 044 → CAI 001 → CAI 012 → non-CAI descent → CAI 009 → CAI 001 and connecting sections → short stretch of CAI 023 → PortoPiccolo

Sections without a CAI number are the race’s own connecting paths, marked on the ground by the organisers. The main ones are the descent from the Bosco del Bovedo towards Barcola and the link between Aurisina Cave, CAI 023 and PortoPiccolo.

Where it joins the S1 Bora Ultra

The S1 Trieste Ultra is the first half of the S1 Bora Ultra: the two races share the same course as far as PortoPiccolo, at km 61.2, where the life base is located. On the official track, the junction point is at coordinates 45.76352, 13.63751.