One of the landscapes most cherished by Trieste residents, here was where Emilio Comici, one of the greatest and most elegant climbers of all time, first learnt his craft.
The 15 km-long Rosandra Stream starts in Slovenia at 413 m above sea level, crosses the Karst plateau, circles around Mount Carso, flows into the valley and finally empties into the Bay of Muggia. Inhabited since antiquity, for centuries this valley was the route to the sea from the Karst plateau.
It was therefore the setting of endless battles between the residents of Trieste and Muggia seeking to gain control of the path (trail marker 1, formerly CAI No. 13), known as the "Via del sale" (Salt Route) because it was used by the "mussolati," (from the Triestine word "mus", meaning donkey), the donkey caravans that travelled from Pese to Zaule, where they exchanged grain and minerals for salt and wine.
The importance of the area's geology (with its splendid examples of karstification, calcareous rocks and Flysch), botany, archaeology and palaeontology (remains of orsus speulus were discovered in a cave), and climatic features (for example, the famous "Bora Saddle", which acts almost like an acceleration lane for the characteristic Trieste wind), led to the establishment of the Val Rosandra Nature Reserve.