Trieste
12 September
Trieste Centrale is just two hours by train from Venice Santa Lucia. The countryside is the flat rich farmland of Veneto, which reminds me a bit of the Lincolnshire Fens. But the Fens don’t have the coffee, spritz, wine, risotto etc etc etc. I won’t be holidaying in Spalding any time soon.
Out flat in Trieste is in an anonymous block where most of the tenants are doctors and lawyers. But it is the best appointed place we have stayed in. There are little notes all over the place explaining how things work, and a big file full of instructions for the appliances. Just what you need in a holiday flat, because most are just shit in that department and you have to Google the instructions for their Chinese induction hob. Our hosts even left a little bottle of Prosecco (which is an actual village near here) and two bus tickets, sweet people.
The centre of Trieste was mostly built by the Austro Hungarian Empire in the late 19th century, so it looks like a bit of Vienna on the Adriatic. It looks stately, with wide boulevards lined with cafes. Facing the sea is the Piazza Unita d’Italia, a huge square surrounded by very grand buildings.
Close by is the Canal Grande, a short canal that brings the sea into the city centre. When we passed by last night there was lots of excitement due to an international kayak polo competition. Two teams in small canoes battle it out throwing a soft football or wacking them with their paddles, trying to get it into a small goal a couple of metres in the air. It’s quite fun to watch for about twenty minutes, which is my annual limit for sport.
A pier called the Molo Audace projects out to see, but it has no ships tied up to it. It’s a top place to sit on a bollard and look at yachts. The Mole de Bersaglieri close by had two enormous cruise liners moored up full of people on a whistle stop tour of the Med. I travel by train and have to cook my own food, so I have an enormous amount of moral superiority. I am a Traveller, like Bruce Chatwin or Paul Theroux, not a mere tourist.
In the Piazza we saw a band doing a sound test for a gig at a charity ball at Harry’s Hotel in the giant piazza. To make it clear, we were outside the hotel and so was the band, we didn’t crash the party. We went to the canal for dinner (crispy chicken and chips as it happens) and went back to Harry’s for a blast of rock ‘n roll. However it was a charity “ball”(no dancing involved) and there were endless people in dinner suits or posh frocks giving speeches about the charity and the goodness of giving them money. So we never got to see the band, which was uncharitable as far as I am concerned.
The canal looked magical at night, with a sunset like the colour of an Aperol Spritz. Trieste is a majestic city I knew very little about before arriving, but I like it muchly now.
13th September
Dear little ChatGPT provided us with a short itinerary for the highlights of the city. So following its advice we went back to the canal and had a cappucino. Its breakfast and therefore quite acceptable in Italy. Trieste is the coffee capital of Italy, and it was a damned fine froffy coffee. On a bridge over the canal is a statue of James Joyce, who taught English in Trieste in the early 20th century.
Next on the list is the Roman amphitheatre, which was worth looking at for a few minutes. But as a Seasoned Traveller I have seen loads now, and they are sooo First Century AD.
Next little Chatty guided us through a car park and along a tunnel to get a lift to Cattedralle di San Giusto. I know that AIs may take over the world and make us all slaves to the machine, but for the time being they can be damned useful. It’s a smallish but ancient cathedral which is flooded with light due to a huge rose window. I liked it more than San Marco, which was very gloomy. Behind the alter is a modern (1920’s) mosaic in gold and blue.
Outside of the castle are the remains of the forum of the Roman town which was on top of the hill. Walking over that you reach a ramp up to the Castello of San Giusto. It was built in the 1500s and deveoped by the Venetians and Austrians over the centuries and is now a museum. A very fine museum it is too, with fantastic views of Trieste from its round bastion. Inside what was formerly the Austrian Captain’s house is a huge display of swords, spears and guns. Everything you need for a zombie apocalypse, should it happen. Shaun of the Dead also used a cricket bat and chucked LPs at the Undead, but they were not on display. Hypothetically which LPs would work best; perhaps disks by The Zombies (ironically), the Grateful Dead or The Damned.
After lunch at the flat we took the No. 20 bus to Barcola “beach”. It is actually a concrete path next to the sea with a strip of pine woodland behind it. The locals were happily barbecueing themselves on towels on the concrete, but we hid under the trees on a bench. There were steps into the briney nearby and I took a dip. The sea was a lovely temperature, but there wasn’t much to see, just lots of tiny fish, too small to dip in batter and make whitebait. Mostly we read our Kindles and occasionally looked at the sea.
Out to sea I could see an enormous three masted yacht, the imaginatively named Sailing Yacht A, owned by a Russian oligarch called Andrey Melnichen. The yacht is 143 meters (469 feet) long with towering carbon-fiber masts reaching 100 meters above the water line. Italian financial police seized the vessel in March 2022 under European Union sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
14th September
We got outtta Dodge today, taking the No.6 bus to Castello Miramar about 5 miles up the coast. BTW do you remember No.6 cigarettes? They were small, cheap and very popular with students in the 70s. Several of the people I knew who smoked them are “no longer with us”. Fortunately No. 6 ciggies are no longer on sale.
Miramare is a mid 19th century mansion overlooking the sea built for Ferdinand Maximilian of Hapsburg, younger brother of Emperor Franz Joseph. He was commander of the Austrian navy which was based in Trieste. He later became Emperor of Mexico, but was shot by republicans who did not fancy being ruled by an Austrian.
I digress! The castle is a big mansion on a limestone crag. The sea that it faces is a marine national park and there are maritime research institutes close by . Our primary interest are the 54 acres of gardens which are very peaceful. The cafes all serve illy coffee, which has its HQ in Trieste. Coffee is a big deal in the city and there are several historic cafes that are like the old ones in Vienna.
The gardens are very lovely, with lots of summer flowers still in full bloom. It’s a relaxing place to just look at flowers being grateful for not having to work any more. Retirement isn’t all about bingo and ITV3 in the afternoon.
I found this statue bizarre, it is supposed to be Eros “strangling a goose”. Quite clearly the artist didn’t know what a goose looks like, also it sounds like a rude euphemism made up by Viz.
In the afternoon we went for a walk around the Citta Vecchia (old town) which is on the slope of the hill that rises to the castello. Its small but pretty, and the major landmark is the old Roman city gate called the Arco Riccardo.
Close by is a library called Biblioteca Hortis, which had an excellent exhibition of posters by a graphic artist called Marcello Dudovich. His work mostly included very sensual ladies advertising drinks, soap and a department store called Mele.
Walking back along the sea front we stopped for a Spritz and enjoyed the view. There has been a considerable amount of imbibing of Aperol Spritz on this holiday, when in Rome (or Trieste) do as the Romans do.
I like this statue of a little girl with a penguin, there has to be a story behind it.
