At the end of August I took off for a long weekend in north-eastern Italy. Trieste is an underappreciated city since everyone in the region heads to Venice, but there are great sights, food, and deals to be had. Not to mention swimming in the Adriatic every day. Trieste has an interesting history since it’s somewhat at a cross-roads between Italian, Austrian and Slavic cultures. It was part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire for over four hundred years, and the architecture definitely reflects that. My only complaint about Trieste would be the heat, but it was my own fault. What is a Canadian doing in Italy in August anyway? Especially sleeping in a cheap and stuffy bed and breakfast with no air conditioning.
Trieste has a beautiful centre square, the Piazza Unità d'Italia, which is one of the few European main squares opening up directly onto the sea:
And lit up at night, it’s also pretty impressive:
Miramare castle perched on a cliff overlooking the gulf of Trieste and built in the 19th century for Austrian royalty:
And the view from inside:
The recently restored Serbian Orthodox Church of Saint Spyridon:
Trieste is known for the icy Bora wind in the winter which can literally knock you over. Note the handrail on this seemingly innocuous flight of stairs:
Other Random Trieste:
Another highlight was a visit to the “Grotta Gigante” (gigantic cave). Its central cavern is 107m high, 65m wide and 130m long putting it in the Guiness book of world records as the world's largest tourist cave (whatever “tourist cave” really means…). The cave contains hundreds if not thousands of stalactites (hanging ones) and stalagmites (growing from the bottom up). No photos are allowed, but I found a few online. It’s hard to get an appreciation of how huge this cave really is from a photo though. The best part was a respite for a few hours from the +35 degrees outside for a cool 10 degrees year-round.
Trieste is only a thirty minute boat ride away from Slovenia, so I did a day trip to Piran, Slovenia, which is a very picturesque little town on the sea, although there isn’t that much to do on a Sunday. I always find it humbling to go to a country where you cannot communicate whatsoever. Italian is close to enough to French/Spanish for me to normally get my message across, but I didn’t have a chance in Slovenian… The advantage of Italy is blending-in with the locals (at least from appearances until I open my mouth – but then they often mistake me for a mentally-challenged Spaniard due to my mangled Spanish/Italian sentences).
An abandoned lighthouse on the peninsula as I arrived in the Piran harbour and as I left at sunset:
OK, now onto my favourite part…..the food! Although the architecture might be mixed, the food in Trieste was distinctly Italian. Here are some of my highlights:
Fresh pasta with seafood (“pasta con delicieze del mare”) and cool white wine every evening:
Homemade gnocchi with tomato and basil:
Enjoying a caffé freddo (iced) on a hot day at the historic Caffé degli Specchi where artists have been gathering for centuries.
And last but not least, my Slovenian meal of beer and traditional cevapçiçi (small sausages) with ayvar sauce on the side:
