The bald limestone ridge north-west of Nova Gorica is the local hike. It is a brisk one — about 600 metres of climb from the village of Gonjace, with a marked trail through scrubby oak woods and a final scramble over open karst. From the cross at the top you look down on Gorizia and Nova Gorica laid out like a map, with the Soca valley curving north toward the Alps and the Friulian plain stretching south toward the sea.
The hill is now a Peace Park, and the restored Austro-Hungarian and Italian trench systems can be explored freely. Bring a head torch — some of the longer tunnels are unlit and run for hundreds of metres straight through the limestone.