cathies

Hi all, we are in the early stages of planning a trip to Trieste next August. We have been invited to stay with a friend. Our mate was born and bred in Sydney but has now inherited the family home in a small village just outside of Trieste and at this stage about 5 couples are heading over from Sydney to spend a week or so with him. We know it will be hot, but our friend enjoys going to Italy in the summer. The upside is that there are no accommodation costs which makes the whole trip very affordable.

My first questions are in relation to travel distances to other places that we might explore. Is it feasible to do some day trips into Croatia or is that a silly idea? We have been to Venice before but would love to return for a quick visit, is that too far to do as a day trip and are there trains etc?

Any suggestions for interesting things in the area that we shouldn't miss. We love to walk and explore the architecture of areas we stay in. Generally happy to take any suggestions on board.

Thanks in advance, Cathie

Debs

Hi Cathies - You could easily visit Opatija (Croatia) as a day trip. This is a lovely seaside area with villa's from the Austro Hungarian Empire days. The Promonade, which hugs the coastline, is beautiful and there are plenty of shops, restaurants and ice cream stands along the way. You could also stop at Portoroz and/or Piran Slovenia, which is along the way to Opatija (and Rijeka for that matter). Ljubljana Slovenia is a great place to plan another side trip.

Watch out for the Vespa's in Trieste!

yestravel

We spent some time in the Fruili area of Italy around the Udine area. Udine is about 1 hour from Triests. We found lots to see and do which I wrote about in this TR
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...udine-area.cfm

cathies

Thanks Debs and yestravel, so grateful for your suggestions. We are very excited about this trip and I am looking forward to planning our days. Although this will be a great opportunity to kick back, relax and soak up the atmosphere of an Italian village, so hopefully not too much advance planning will be needed.

Yestravel, I'll read your trip report over the weekend (Friday night here in Sydney), thanks for the link. Cathie

Debs,we managed to avoid being wiped out by Vespas in Athens, so hopefully Trieste won't be worse than that!

Palenque

I enjoyed Trieste very much - kind of Austria in Italy and enjoyed taking the tram up to the Croatian border.

cathies

Thanks Palenque, we've spent a little time in Italy and we are really looking forward to seeing this slightly lesser known area. We haven't been to Austria so perhaps this will give us a little taste. Could you tell me about the tram? I'm curious to know where you caught it to and how long the trip took.