A few kilometers south-est from Trieste, the tabular plateau of the Carso is suddenly deeply etched by a valley. On the bottom of this valley, 300 meters below the sorrounding edges of the plateau, you can find a creek. This is Val Rosandra (Rosandra Valley), a tiny geographical entity that, from Draga to Bagnoli, is just 2.500 meters long.

Being a canyon in front of the sea is not the only pecularity of this place. The Rosandra Valley collects in a very small territory an extraordinary variety of matters of interest: natural bothanical and morphological aspects, historic and preistoric remains of ancient settlements, one of the best place in the surroundings of Trieste where to learn and to exercise climbing, to go trecking and hiking in a nearly alpine environment.

The Rosandra Valley has been originated in ancient times by tectonic upheavals that have moved to the surface rocks of different kind of permeability. The water and, during the ice age the glaciers, have escavated this deep valley in the carsic plateau. The erosive action of the Rosandra creek is still in act albeit greatly reduced.

In more recent times, about 6.000 years ago, the man began to settle in this place finding caves and favorable environmental conditions to live.
This ancient human settlement lasted till the expansion of the Roman Empire. With the arrive of the more civilized romans, the Valley became an important easy and useful way of transit from the sea to the background territories.
A testimony of the fact that the romans knew and used a lot these places is not only the roman aqueduct but also the remains of military posts on high points and caves.

The Rosandra Valley importance grew again during the Middle Ages, as unique commercial way of transit for Trieste. The town in that period was commercially blocked on the sea by the Venetian Republic and all the goods travelled through the Valley.

Nowadays the Rosandra Valley is a great place where to relax and make sport with its vertical dimension to make the difference with the rest of the Carso.
For the most of the people the Valley is a beautiful waterwall and a "osteria" where to eat and drink in Botazzo, others know a lot of footpaths, the climbers know where their pitons are, the swimmers know the best places of the river where to dive, the cyclists know the old railway...
For everybody is a spectacular place that absolutely deserve a visit!

I made this site for all the people of Trieste who want to know much more on the Val Rosandra and for all the turists that are visiting our city so they can discover this fantastic valley so uncommon in a costal region.