Trieste

Day 483 (October 24, 2019) – Trieste, Italy

We arrived in Trieste by bus. There was a train from Ljubljana, but the bus was less expensive and faster. Shortly after crossing the border into Italy we could see the ocean again, way below us and off in the distance. The bus followed a winding highway down the steep mountain slopes all the way down to sea level. As soon as we got off the bus it felt like Italy. Narrow streets, even narrower sidewalks, lots of mopeds on the road, and cars parked askew half-way onto sidewalks. We arrived before we could check into the apartment, so we grabbed a seat at a café to pass the time. Trieste was a very impressive city from our café table in the center of town. A large canal ran right through the center of town and opened to the ocean a few blocks away. Sitting along this canal and surrounded by stately buildings, it was a very picturesque spot to be.

The canal in Trieste.

When our check-in time arrived, we finished our walk to the apartment, hiking up a very steep hill to meet our host. The apartment was amazing. It was a place where someone might actually live (like the original intent of Airbnb), not one of the countless apartments we’ve stayed in that had been converted to serve exclusively as an Airbnb listing. During check-in, we inquired about the wifi password, but were “reminded” that the apartment did not have any wifi. I just had to laugh when he said this. We had come across so many listings all over the world that didn’t have wifi and we usually avoided them. We were so careful about it, but here we were at one of our last stops and we had forgotten to check that they had wifi. Oh well… at least the apartment was great otherwise. They even gave us a bottle of wine.

Trieste is home to lots of narrow streets up steep hills.

That night we went out for dinner and finally got some Italian pizza. We had been looking forward to this for a while. It did not disappoint, and our carafe of house wine was surprisingly good. We were going to have to get used to the late dining, however. We went to this particular restaurant because it was one of the few that opened at 7 pm. We were starving and managed to hold our hunger off until about 7:30, but most restaurants did not even open their doors until 8 pm. We were so obviously tourists in town, not only eating so early, but also eating indoors. By the time we left the pizzeria was finally packed with people, but every one of them was eating out on the patio bundled up in coats. We were also going to have to get used to the prices. Our dinner came to $30, which under normal circumstances might seem inexpensive, but we did not want to be spending that every night for dinner.

Our Italian pizza night.

We were up the next morning and out of the apartment early enough in the day to walk around without it being too hot. We picked up a couple pastries for breakfast and ate them by the water. One of the main squares in town was quite interesting, which was only lined with buildings on three sides with the fourth side being open to the water. The ocean wasn’t all that inviting, however, because there were thousands of jellyfish in it. They were kind of cool to see, especially with so many of them everywhere, but I would not have wanted to take a swim. We walked all around town that day, stopped to get some kebab for lunch, and then eventually found a grocery store to pick up ingredients for dinner.

One of the main squares in Trieste.

The fourth side of that same square opens up to the water.

I got this picture at just the right time for this bird to photobomb it. 

We felt inspired by Italy and decided to make Marcella Hazan’s bolognese sauce. When we were checking out at the grocery store register, there was some sort of promotion going on involving scratch-off cards. Well, luck was on our side and we won a free bag of groceries, which included even more pasta and tomato sauce! We had just bought these things, but we were not about to turn away free food. We were going to have a lot of eating to do during our three remaining days in Trieste. We chose to walk back home in what looked like the most direct route on the map, but it turned out that there was actually a giant hill in between where we were and our home, so we were stuck hiking up the giant hill with all the groceries in hand. Exhausted after reaching the top of the hill, we decided we would not be doing that again. We also learned after getting back home that there was not a can opener for the tomatoes. So we went back out again to find a store that sold can openers. It seemed like we would never get a chance to make that dinner, but we did eventually gather all our materials and managed to cook a tasty Italian dinner for ourselves.

Halfway up our hike over the hill between the grocery store and the apartment.

Our grocery store winnings.

We were back to walking around town the next day. This walk brought us past the Arco de Ricardo, an arch that has been around since 33 BC, and also past the ruins of a Roman amphitheater. They were both just down the street, and right next to main thoroughfares. It was so strange to think that these old ruins are just sitting in the middle of the city, but that’s Italy I suppose. We continued walking along the water and through an enormous harbor packed with boats. It was hard to image that there could be so many of them. Had it been the summertime I am sure more of them would have been out on the water instead of being docked. We ended the afternoon with some gelato and then went back home for dinner. We did have a lot of pasta to eat, after all.

This arch has been around since 33 BC and everything else has been built up around it. 

We had one last day in Trieste and we used it to see another part of the city. We walked up a nearby hill to see the grounds of the San Guisto Castle. There was also a nearby church and viewpoints where you could see the whole city. It was a great location for a castle, looking over all of Trieste and the ocean. Walking back down the other side of the hill we ended the day at a café for an afternoon coffee and a chance to use their wifi.

And afternoon coffee and a chance to connect to wifi. 

We wanted to call it an early night because we were leaving at the crack of dawn to catch a train to Rome. Unfortunately, we did not get to bed as early as we would have liked. There was a rail workers strike scheduled for the next day and we were working with our current and next Airbnb hosts to figure out if our train was even going to be running. It seemed like it would continue as scheduled, but we had some doubts. We eventually make it to bed, but only to wake up well before dawn. We trekked across town in the dark to the train station. Fortunately, our train was not affected by the strike, and it departed on time. Our next stop was essentially the last of the trip. It was hard to believe, but in six or so hours we would arrive in Rome.

Walking through Trieste at six in the morning to catch our train.