Week 601 · Miramare Castle · San Giusto · Cataract Gorge
Trieste is a great town — more Austrian than Italian, with architecture and city planning by the Habsburgs — and was one of the last regions incorporated into modern Italy in the 1950s. We had about 2 days in Trieste and visited the main sites of Miramare Castle and San Giusto as well as exploring the city. The transition from Venice was simple: 10-minute walk to water bus → train station → direct train to Trieste → 15-minute walk to hotel.
We started with a recommended café for lunch — supposedly famous back to the days of James Joyce — in the Unity of Italy Square, named for when Trieste joined Italy in the 1950s.
Miramare Castle and gardens were spectacular — white marble right on the Adriatic Sea. Built by Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian and his wife Charlotte of Belgium in the mid-1800s; he later became Emperor Maximilian of Mexico. The interior was preserved as it was in the mid-1800s while the second floor was left as it was in the 1930s when it was modernised in Art Deco — the older decoration was much better. We spent a couple of hours there before we hopped on a city bus packed with people returning from the "beach" (very rocky). The shoreline from central city to Miramare is about 6 miles and has a tree-lined shore and for a Tuesday it was packed.
The town was great — filled with pedestrian areas with many places to eat dinner outside. We settled on a place off of the main plaza. We did have a first — Italian menus have antipasto, primo, and secondo — and generally we have just ordered what we wanted regardless and it was delivered. However, when we asked about our second course about 45 minutes after we finished the first course, we got a bit of a rebuke from the waitress that we needed to be patient and it "wasn't time yet." Sharon was sceptical and thought they had just forgotten about us. I ordered the local lasagna (first course) — was more like beef stroganoff than traditional lasagna — and my calamari (second course) showed up an hour later.
Our last day we started at the Roman Ruins and then walked up the hill to Castello di San Giusto with adjacent church and belltower overlooking the city, and wandered through town visiting a famous coffee house.
"Nice to be born into royalty — even if you end up getting shot. The Habsburgs planned Trieste; you can still see the grid."
We boarded our cruise boat late and soon after left to Koper, Slovenia — about 30 miles away. Leaving the harbour we saw a supervillain yacht — a $500 million Russian oligarch sailboat.
