Nova Gorica – The East right in the West

27. August 2025

 

 

Slovenians can be quite the jokers sometimes – we puzzled over this sign for a long time until we realized that the rain cloud had been mounted upside down. This was at the train station, and we were happy to gain another insight into Slovenia: train travel. Affordable, punctual, and empty – that was our first impression. And the fact that there are still stationmasters!

 

 

 

 

We took a short train ride to Nova Gorica for a day trip. Nova Gorica is located in the far west of Slovenia, right on the Italian border, yet it felt as “eastern” as I had imagined parts of socialist former Yugoslavia to be. At times, I almost felt as if I were in a post-Soviet state, even though President Tito distanced himself more and more from the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc after 1948.

 

Nova Gorica was only founded in 1948. When Yugoslavia was established after World War II, the border with Italy was drawn just east of the town of Gorizia. The railway line and station were allocated to Yugoslavia. A small part of the town was included as well, but not much. So they began building an entirely new city – namely Nova Gorica.

 

Even today, the Italy–Slovenia border runs directly along the western side of the station, accompanied by an interesting statue that had nothing to do with it.

 

 

Nova Gorica and Gorizia (together with Chemnitz) are European Capitals of Culture in 2025. A lot has been done for this. For example, we immediately lingered at the station because an interesting exhibition titled “Never mind the borders” was displayed there.

 

 

We learned quite a bit about the Italian–Yugoslav border – for example, that Slovenians often crossed into Italy to shop for Western products, while Italians came to Yugoslavia for birth control pills and abortions.

 

In front of the station, there was an interesting mirrored structure with speakers playing poetry or something similar in several languages, including German. One of the pieces was about a cow that stood with its feet in Italy and grazed on the grass in Yugoslavia – or perhaps the other way around.

 

 

 

 

Half-exhausted, we first stopped for an espresso and cappuccino. The proximity to Italy really shows in this regard. And what’s also great: there’s always a glass of tap water served with it!

 

 

And then we continued on to a town center. There, and along the way, we saw many buildings that, in my eyes, were quite ugly, and I took pictures of some of them. There were also more sculptures to see. Here, it felt further away from home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This building houses one of the largest casinos in Europe. I didn’t find the city beautiful, but I found it super interesting because it was so different.

 

 

 

 

I could actually have kept wandering for much longer, but
a) I was completely exhausted from the heat, and
b) the train didn’t run very often, so it was better to head back sooner rather than later.

 

The train back was different, not quite as stylish, but somewhat nostalgic in that you could still roll the windows down—just like in the old days of train travel!

 

 

There was still so much more to see, but some of it was quite spread out and far away. Still, I was glad to be exploring curiously again, seeing what was out there. I just lacked the leisure time. And of course, it would be incredibly exciting to also visit the Italian twin city—or to experience more of the diverse cultural program.

 

But it was also wonderful to just hang out on our terrace afterwards and have dinner.

 

 

And after that? That was already our final stage… Emotionally, I could have come to terms with going home. But it was good that we didn’t—because an entirely different, amazing highlight still awaited us!