Saturday in the Gulf of Trieste

 

Even in the early morning hours, when we were feasting on Trojane donuts with mouth-watering divine vanilla filling, the temperatures were already high. On a rather empty highway we rushed to the seaside. At the Fernetiči border crossing we entered the highway of the most terrible drivers in the world (no offense Italians!). After a few minute drive to Venice we exited at Sistiana and turned to the local road, drove through the town of Duiono, where we left our car on a well-maintained parking lot.

The sun has just started its daily round across the sky, and with its hot rays accompanied us on the Rilke trail*, a beautiful 2-mile trail, leading along the edge of a steep karst limestone cliffs of the Gulf of Trieste, from Sistiana to Duino Castle. The air was filled with the mixture of the Mediterranean and Central European climate, and that harmony could also be recognized in the vegetation. We admired the never-ending blue of the Adriatic Sea underneath us, and while the wind was playing with our hair, we could smell the saltines he brought with him. Previously a small yellow dot at the end of the cliff revealed itself in its natural size about a half hour later. Castle Duiono impressed us with its size and beauty. The entrance ticket coasted us 7 Euros. Firstly, the steep, wet descending stairs led us into the bunker, where every so often we felt the drops of water, dripping from the ceiling onto our freshly washed hair. Due to the unpleasant feelings that enclosed spaces awake in me, Saša and I left the bunker and let Kaja enjoy the subterranean adventure all by herself. We rather made ourselves comfortable by the fountain in the park, where we admired the blue of the skies above us and the infinite sea just below us. Inside the mansion we were surprised to find that the shiny silver cutlery, the made bed and an open book in the library are still waiting, as if the Walsee family members were to return anytime and continued living their lives, as if it they were never interrupted. It seemed as if life there has never really stopped, especially when the melody of a vibrating violin strings, just touched by the horsehair on the bow, filled the salon.

 

 

One of the most beautiful corners of the Mediterranean Sea. A place where I could spend all of my money, dance through the summer nights, swim across whole bay and on the comfortable leather loungers bare my skin to the caressing sun rays all summer long. Here the Italian phrase "Dolce far niente!" gets its true meaning. Nowadays luxurious honeymoon resorts, where sophistication, beauty and soaring prices go hand in hand, was once an insignificant quarry. While we sat on the pier in the marina with 121 quays for the wealthiest yachts, arriving from all around the world, we rested our eyes on the nice villas and luxury apartments carved into the wall of the quarry. Newly created small Mediterranean town, with tiled paths of mild orange colour, has fine restaurants and cafes, and on the ground floor of luxury villas the latest items of clothing, fashion accessories and jewellery of the most luxurious brands at vertiginous prices. A little dizzy from all the astronomical prices, we comfortably stretched out on the leather loungers of the pier café and treated ourselves with a refreshing, ice-cold mojito with fresh lemon balm leaves. For the 10 EUR, which we paid for the drink only, we not-at-all-lady-like ate all the olives and roasted nuts.

 

I am always impressed by the distinctive white colour, nice zigzagged facade and cute roof towers of the castle. Gothic and Renaissance elements are completed by the playfulness of the medieval elements. Perhaps these castle details are the one element that bewitches the visitors to pause every time as petrified in front of the entrance. From the castle balcony opens a splendid view of Trieste and its port (but already enough is a walk around the castle, where you don't even need to pay an entrance fee). After we captured some wonderful moments with our cameras, we walked to the park, designed in the typical Italian style. While sitting in a park, filled with the fragrance of countless flowers, watching all the surrounding vegetation, it is hard to imagine that a good two hundred years before it was all but a naked rock. Today, the 22-acre park grows plants from around the world, which was supposedly brought there by Ferdinand Maximilian from his travels.

 

If the generation of my grandparents went to Trieste to buy jeans, young people today certainly do not visit it for the same reason. We visited Trieste only to enjoy the beauty of the architectural treasures on Piazza dell'Unità d'Italia (Square of United Italy) and drank coffee, while watching the idyllic sunset. Trieste is a place where the coffee, accompanied with a romantic sunset, when the fiery orange sun dives into the Adriatic Sea, tastes the best, and where the tasty pizza with seafood smells of freshly caught catch caught in fishing nets the same morning. Despite the evening hours was the city vibrant- cafes and restaurants on the ground floor and the terraces on the square were full of people. Waiters with Italian tanned complexion and vigorous temperament, dressed in white jackets and at first glance anything but comfortable bibs (in the already hot night), that went well with the black pants they were wearing, welcomed the passers-by into already full bars. After a day of exploring the beauties of the northern Gulf of Trieste, pizza with seafood really was the best fit. From the pier we admired the many yachts that were anchored there, complained about the stench of the nearby port, at the canal Grande waved goodbye to James Joyce and then slowly departed from Trieste.

 

 

Pitch black darkens already wrapped its hands around the streets of Trieste while we were leaving and set ourselves onto a two hours long drive back to Styria. Slightly tired, but filled with joy, we promised ourselves to soon venture on another one-day trip.

 

You can read more about Trieste in the article Wandering around in Trieste.