Day 8 – In Trieste

Trieste is a kaleidoscope of beautiful buildings, cultures and amazing sights. Its topography and travelling by local bus reminded us a little of Wellington. Today, we took a self guided audio tour of the main sights in the city (there were 22 stops – and we’ve only included a selection in this post). The tour started in the amazing Piazza dell’Unita – the photo we posted yesterday. The church of Santa Maria Maggiore was the next main stop – a beautiful old church dating from 1627. Next door was another church – San Silvestro – which was much older, but not open to the public. Up the hill a little, we came across Tor di Riccardo – an ancient roman gate which is the only part of the original walls that is still intact.

We made our way up the hill further to the cathedral – San Giusto – where there is a magnificent old cathedral – complete with cannon balls still showing in the façade of the cathedral and amazing mosaic ceilings. Neil and Karla took the climb up the bell tower – where the views over the city were stunning. We went to the San Giusto castle and museums – but they were a little disappointing – with not much to see.

Down the Treppe Giuseppe Rota (steps), through the Tor Chucherna (another ancient gate/tower of the roman city) to one of our favourite places of the walking tour – the roman theatre (pictured to the right). The theatre was uncovered during the demolition of existing buildings in 1937 – but was built in the 1^st century AD. It is a great example of roman architecture and you can just imagine the shows and gladiator fights that once took place here. Apparently, the sea used to come right up to the theatre in those days – although the sea is much further away these days.

Lunch was next at Caffe Walter – which opened in 1907 and is still running. We then moved on through the rest of the walking tour – finishing again at Piazza dell’Unita. Then we took a bus to the museum Riseria di San Sabba – which was the only nazi extermination camp in Italian territory. The camp wasn’t quite as moving as Dachau – but nevertheless left us in no doubt as to what had gone on there.

Another few buses later, we were on the absolute other side of town to visit Castello Miramare (commenced in 1856) - pictured to the right. This is a castle built by Maximillian of Hapsburg (from the Austro-Hungarian Empire) who was appointed leader of Mexico in 1863. In fact, today is the anniversary of the day he was proclaimed the emperor of Mexico – paintings at the castle depict this. Less than 4 years later he was shot by the Mexicans in Mexico – go figure. The castle is in the most amazing location – hopefully our photos do it justice. The castle remained in the Hapsburg family, and ownership was disputed during world war 1 and 2, finally being ceded to the Italian government in 1955 as an historical museum.

After another bus back into town and some time to get into our glad rags – we had dinner at De Scarpon – which is a restaurant (Osteria for those who know Italian) which was voted the top restaurant in Trieste by the locals recently. Specialities are seafood – which was right up our alley!

We’ve had a fantastic but busy day - so busy that we can only narrow our selection of photos to four (all posted). Off to Slovenia tomorrow afternoon – given the internet prices here in the northern part of Italy (2 euro for 15 minutes) we’re hoping it is cheaper in Slovenia and Italy. Time will tell…