Day 5 - [T]rieste
Trieste
Today started very early. Awake at 4 am. Eventually, I decided to use the time to exercise and then start my day earlier than the rest of the house. I was ready to go by 7 am. Having developed the view that Italians don’t do breakfast (a fatal flaw in their culture, I think), I had originally thought that I might hang on and break my fast with lunch. That idea lasted about 10 minutes. I checked on Google Maps for the nearest bar (the Italian name for a coffee shop, which often also sells alcohol) open and there were a couple at the end of the via. Off I went.
(where my AirBNB is) |
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The architecture in Trieste is pretty homogeneous. Lots and lots of stone/concrete buildings, 3-5 stories high (tall stories too, ~14ft ceilings), side-by-side along narrow streets/lanes. Most of the buildings I’m seeing are probably one or two hundred years old, judging by their style (I’ve not seen any dates). It looks to me like they just refurbish the structure and update the interiors when the building is deemed ‘run down’. Interestingly, at least in the parts of Trieste that I saw this day, there are no modern, glass wrapped buildings or any height. I wonder how they are coping with increasing population here?
I found Bar Hortis without any problem and ordered a cappuccino and a croissant. A chocolate-filled croissant, it turned out, but not the classic chocolate croissant. I ordered another coffee – cafe americano, this time – as the cappuccino was literally a shot of coffee and a small cup of milk foam. The coffee is very nice (Trieste is apparently famed for its coffee culture), but the way it’s served here clashes with my deeply-held Aussie coffee culture prejudices. But that’s just me, right?!
I went home again and wrote up yesterday’s blog. I then broadly planned a walking tour of central Trieste to see some sights and get a bit of a feel for Trieste. Lonely Planet recommends walking around the old centre and had also recommended an interesting sounding museum. The museum is quite close to my AirBNB so I plotted to do a long meandering loop around central Trieste and end up at the Museum on my way back. I set off to enact that plan.
Having said that the architecture is quite homogeneous, there are certainly many impressive buildings in Trieste.
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Trieste is, of course, a port city. The brass model of the town gives a really nice overview of how it sits in its landscape. Also, keep in mind the high, shiny point on the model. We’ll come back to that.
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As I started wandering around the city, I discovered that there was a protest going on. Clearly about the conflict in Gaza and apparently led by students. I read in the paper that 8,000 people attended. That sounds very believable to me, there were certainly thousands in attendance, chanting and marching slowly through the centre of town. I never got too close to the protests so the photos aren’t very journalistic.
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While wandering around reacting to the first contact with the protest, I stumbled upon some important Roman archaeology in the open air! A Roman amphitheatre in quite good condition, right there in the middle of Trieste. The sign says that it has been restored (and slightly re-built, after being exposed from the buildings that were built over it!
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I kept wandering, giving the cordoned-off area of the protest a wide berth and looking for somewhere to buy a lightweight jacket (a planned purchase to account for forthcoming trips further north and later in the autumn). I found a place and have acquired a very nice jacket. I started feeling the benefit of it immediately against the cold wind blowing along Trieste streets. My ‘follow-my-nose’ navigation approach was doing alright today. As I review my photos on Google Maps, I have managed to hit the tourist highlights by dumb luck.
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in Piazza Vittorio Veneto |
Still I wandered. I went up a rising road to see if I could get a vantage over the city. This little street wasn’t high enough, though a pretty walk all the same. I was now heading for the museum, through the top of the main town centre, with the idea of getting some lunch along the way. I strolled past the a huge building and thought to myself ‘well, this just has to be the law courts, or a centre of government’. Turns out, my first guess was correct.
More wandering towards the museum and I came across Antico Caffe San Marco. It looked enticing from outside and the sign at the door said it was a long-standing centre for intellectual and revolutionary thinkers. I had to go in!
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After lunch, a now more determined walk to the museum, following Google Maps directions. The top part of the city centre has an important pedestrian-only mall, the Viale Venti Settembre, which is tree-lined and simply fabulous. If I hadn’t already had lunch, this would have been the place to find a spot.
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Google Maps was telling me I only had a ten-fifteen minute walk to the museum. What it failed to mention is that the straight-line walk went straight over the highest point in the city (remember the shiny high-point in the brass relief earlier). And I’d already exercised this morning! The tourist map found three quarters up the climb notes that it is “scala dei giganti” – the giant stairs!
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It was only a short walk now, downhill, to the entrance to Museo d’AntiChita JJ Winckelmann, which I walked right past the first time. The entry was through a small garden which had jumbled piles of archaeological specimens as well as displays of more archaeological stuff. The presented material was not really explained or contextualised. But there was lots of stuff!
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When I got inside, the wonders multiplied rapidly. Everything was labelled and explained in Italian (of course!) but I got the broad impression and when I scanned some of the many QR codes next to each exhibit, Google could translate the detailed explanations (though not grammatically well, I note). After wandering through most of the museum, I came to the realisation, there was literally thousands of pieces on display. Where I have previously come across exhibits where they have one or two, say, personal oil burners found on the site, this museum had scores of them on display. It was the same for everything. They even had three Egyptian mummies displayed and two other sarcophagi. (That was a little unsettling because I think modern archaeology has views about the display of mummies that these displays, while respectful, might not completely align with.) Each room was displaying dozens and dozens of similar pieces, apparently all collected by the one archaeologist during his career, and apparently from the broadly local area (though clearly, Egypt is not local). I left the museum overawed.
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First exposure to the magnitude of this collection |
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There were two pieces that really caught my fancy. The soldier’s helmet was almost undamaged. The associated description suggested that it had fallen into the cave it was found in (The Cave of Flies!) by mistake. There are two names engraved on the rim of the helmet, showing that it had two owners before being lost. The cup is bronze in the shape of a cow’s head. Fantastically detailed and amazingly well-preserved. I would definitely have that as my drinking cup!
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I walked back to my AirBNB, literally 5 minutes (steeply) down the road and ended my long day of sightseeing. I spent the next couple of hours fiddling around with personal computer projects and doing some reading. Eventually, it came time for dinner (I’d had to wait till 7:30 pm for the place I wanted to try to open.) I went into Osteria Bier Stube Trieste and was initially told, he was full-up tonight and couldn’t fit me in. Then he re-thought it and realised he could fit me in if I was done by 9 pm. I said I would be and we were in business. Quite a bit of negotiation led to me ordering ham cooked in beer, and a veal cordon bleu with the house’s special potatoes. It was all lovely, but the cordon bleu was huge! It was all I could do to eat it all.
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| Daily facts: Location: Trieste Temp: 19C Weather: Clear skies, light winds |
Yes, Italian coffee - the most delicious coffee you can find … as long as you’re happy drinking it like a shot! Not the milky cuppa we all love, and take our time sipping.
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