Explore the valleys
The Natisone Valleys are located between the Alps and the Friulian plain, north of Cividale. They include the seven municipalities of Stregna, San Leonardo, Grimacco, Drenchia, Savogna, San Pietro al Natisone, and Pulfero. To the southeast, they are flanked by the Iudrio Valley, marked by the border river.
The main center of the Natisone Valleys is San Pietro al Natisone, where the small church of St. Quirinus commemorates the popular assemblies that took place here until the fall of the Republic of Venice. This town hosts the Slovenian Cultural Center (Slovenski kulturni dom) with the already mentioned SMO Museum and the Beneška galerija, a bilingual school (kindergarten, primary and lower secondary) with Italian and Slovenian as languages of instruction, a music school, and nearly all the services a tourist might need.
Not far from San Pietro is the Biarzo Rock Shelter, one of the most important prehistoric sites in the area, and the Antro Cave with its adjoining 15th-century Gothic church by Master Andrea da Loka. To the north rises Mount Matajur, from whose summit there is a magnificent view over the plain to the sea and across the Julian Alps. Telling the story of mountain life in this region is a museum collection in Masseris, which also displays all the tools used in rake-making, a traditional craft of Tercimonte, the birthplace of the poet Ivan Trinko.
In Castelmonte near Cividale, one of the oldest surviving texts of Slovenian literature—the Castelmonte Manuscript—was written. From there, a road along the mountain ridge leads to Tribil Superiore, where a collection of old customs and traditions is on display: pust (carnival), kries (St. John’s bonfire), village festivals, and ancient religious feasts.