Fence divides neighboring towns
By Alessio Vinci
CNN Rome Bureau Chief
 |  A small portion of the fence was removed as a symbolic gesture. |
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 A metal fence that has separated Italy from Slovenia has been partially dismantled amid skepticism on both sides. CNN's Alessio Vinci reports (April 13)
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GORIZIA, Italy (CNN) -- The border between Italy and Slovenia is barely visible here. Neighboring rooftops sit in two different towns in two different countries.
Gorizia, once a single town, was divided between Italy and what was then Yugoslavia at the end of World War II.
Today a small fence -- once called the "small Berlin Wall" -- cuts the city in two, running through private gardens and fields.
And although a small portion of it was recently removed, it was just a symbolic gesture to welcome Slovenia into the European Union.
In reality, most of the fence will stay where it is for as long as border controls are necessary -- likely a few more years.
So don't mention the word reunification to the Zoff brothers. The border runs right through their garden, putting their house in Italy and the field they cultivate in Slovenia.
"You see this?" says Dario Zoff. "On this side is Italy and on the other is Slovenia."
The Zoff brothers, like most residents, easily move back and forth across the border. Yet they don't believe enlargement will make that big of a difference in their lives.
They own further land in Slovenia, where they collect wood they import back into Italy. Enlargement, they are told, means there should be free movement of goods and services.
"They are saying it," says Dario Zoff, "but I'm skeptical. I have been burned so many times before.
"Look, two months ago I was importing our logs from Slovenia, but because they use cubic meters and we use tons to measure it, I made a small mistake. The custom officer went crazy. Why? Why if all this is supposed to end shortly?"
Dario Zoff may have a point, but with impending enlargement, authorities on both sides are trying to improve cooperation.
A town square that was once in no man's land is being turned into a common marketplace, and city officials have created a bus service running between the two sides of town.
The service is meant only for residents who live on both sides of the divide. The bus drives through a so-called secondary border crossing used by locals who hold a special permit allowing them to move freely between the two countries.
Slovenian driver Mario Batistic is also among those who believe EU enlargement will bring little change.
"For the time being everything will remain the same," Batistic says. "For the next two years we'll still need to show documents to cross this border."
Afternoons, the service is provided by Italian buses. Driver Gianluca Berlot is Italian but belongs to a tiny Slovenian minority here.
"I think and hope that in the end the two towns will reunite," Berlot says. "But they way I see it, if it will happen, it will happen in a distant future".
In the last century, people here witnessed several border changes. What was once Austria became Italy, then Yugoslavia and now Slovenia.
So for many here, enlargement represents just another twist in a complicated history of conflict and change. What is welcome, though, is that this change does not come as the result of yet another war.
