Dai

Hi Alessandra, I am awaiting your impressions of Trieste. It has been on my radar for many years and I am interested in your experience, so don't stop now!

sartoric

Hi AZ, I'm also following your journey. I wouldn't dream of getting on a bike, but admire those who do have the energy to pump pedals.
Thanks for posting. Please continue.

AlessandraZoe

Dai and Sartoric--Thanks for pushing me onwards. I have to admit that the cycle and I still were not best friends on this past trip, but I hope to return to a former glory soon. And Dai, Trieste WAS on my radar for years. So many people told me "Don't bother", but I wanted to see for myself. So we're almost getting to that point.

AlessandraZoe

**Hisa Franko (Ana Ros) in Kobarid.

I forgot to expand on this footnote in a post above. We stayed at the <b>Hisa Franko</b> last year, and we got to meet <b>Ana Ros</b>. She is world famous, she's brilliant, and she is just like the nice smart girl you roomed with in college. Totally down to earth in ANY language. She spoke five when we met her and she was working on two more.

There are many articles about her online, but I happen to like this one:
http://www.viewfromthepier.com/2013/06/21/ana-ros/

We did not stay with her on this trip, but I do want people to note that if you don't get to Kobarid, in Ljublana, Ana is partner in one of the restaurants near the castle: <b>Gostilna Na Gradu</b> http://www.nagradu.si/en/.

We had no idea of her ownership; all we knew is that we each tasted a mouthful of this simply sublime Lemon Mashed Potatoes there and were in awe. When we later ate at the <b>Hisa Franko</b>, all became clear.

Now back to the Trip Report...

AlessandraZoe

Back at the hotel in Bled, our pre final dinner outing was a boat ride in one of the traditional Bled <b>Pletna boats</b> http://www.bled.si/en/what-to-see/sy...of-bled/pletna. Our entire group got into one boat, and we headed for <b>The Church on the Island</b> http://www.bled.si/en/what-to-see/cu...-on-the-island.

Our delightful young guide gave an excellent presentation, explaining that he just barely got away with not carrying his wife up all the stairs after their wedding because of a lightning storm (here's a YouTube video of the groom carrying the wife up all 99 stairs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuXo-de1rt4 )

We all got to ring the bell inside the church for our wishes. Yes, my wish was for oodles of healthy grandchildren!!!!

Our entire group loved our boat ride and guide; the entire group all pretty much agreed that our farewell dinner in <b>Villa Bled</b>'s dining room was missing something.

The author Calvin Trillin has a good term for it: "La Maison de la Casa House". It's food that's just trying to be up there but really does not hit the mark because it lacks a relationship to its locality.

Our group's table was in this HUGE empty hotel dining room, so there was no "there" there. Thank goodness our group was fun and our meal certainly wasn't bad by any means, but I certainly would say to anyone going to Bled that there ARE good places to eat there, and this isn't worth your extra $$$$.

Yet I must also say that their breakfast was darn good--and it provides a view of the lake too!

sartoric

I have to ask - how many is an oodle ?

AlessandraZoe

You know, sartoric, I have no clue as to whether or not "an oodle" has ever been quantified.

sartoric

Good answer

thursdaysd

Looking forward to more. I'll revisit Venice this November, and I'm planning to stop off in Trieste on the way (have just started rereading "Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere"). What sort of price range for La Zucca?

AlessandraZoe

I'm pretty sure La Zucca was around 180 USD for the three of us. Osteria Bancogiro was around 200 USD for the three of us.

AlessandraZoe

For our last day at Bled, most of the group took a quick cycle through some of the local towns.

Three of us decided to head to <b>Bled Castle</b> http://www.blejski-grad.si/en/about-bled-castle instead. We took a taxi up near their opening time, and we were able to check out the museum right away and then were able to tour the little forge, printing press, and so on as they opened later on.

The walk down was a little hard on our knees (we three were among the oldest of the cycle tour) but the walk was so darn pleasant. I wish we had had time to check out some of the churches in town on the way, but we knew we had to get back to get packed.

This tour was good in that it included an ending bus shuttle that stopped first in <b>Ljubljana</b> (downtown or airport) and then went on to the rail station in <b>Trieste, Italy</b>. Feeling we had seen enough of Ljubljana the previous year, we headed for <b>Trieste</b>.

AlessandraZoe

I had made a deal as Master Trip Planner with my husband and daughter--I would plan most of the trip, including the hotel and transport from Trieste, but they had to plan how we would spend our 1.5 days there. I supplied them with our one hard copy guide to Italy plus had sent guidebooks and articles to their Kindle and iPad. They took an hour at Hotel Bled (and three beers) to come up with a plan.

We arrived at the train station shortly after noon and took a taxi to our hotel: <b>Starhotel Excelsior Palace</b> http://savoiaexcelsiorpalace.starhot...m/en/home.aspx . This hotel facing the harbor is very nicely situated, and both of our rooms had balconies looking out to sea.

We headed out for a quick pizza and salad, and then we sauntered down to the Tourist Office. It is located just off the main square, opposite Harry's Bar and the entrance to the Grand Hotel Duchi d'Aosta. Run by TurismoFVG, the regional tourist authority for all of Friuli Venezia Giulia, the office has a wealth of information about Trieste and the rest of the region in several languages. My daughter had a good idea of what questions to ask, and the representative we spoke to was very helpful.

We ended up with a 48-hr discount card for 15 Euros plus 3 Euros for 48 hours of bus transport. It would pay for a guided walking tour plus entrance from everything from most art museums to the Castle Miramare.

As the non-trip planner in Trieste, I was pretty impressed with the father-daughter team.

We walked around the main square, where exhibits marked the 100th anniversary of the funeral of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. It's so ironic that the shot that ended his life would permanently end this city's world standing for the next century.

The day was hot, we were tired, so we decided we'd just check out four candidates for our evening meal and call it a day. We read all four restaurant menus and decided we wanted <b>Al Bagatto</b> http://www.albagatto.it/. We headed back to the hotel and asked the desk manager to make a reservation for us.

The simply gorgeous lobby/bar/library was getting busy because the hotel was the headquarters for the International Talent Support contest. According to its website, "ITS searches, discovers and reveals the freshest, most unique talents in fashion, accessories and jewelry design and this year sees a new competition field ITS ARTWORK, dedicated to the development of artistic visions." The young people in the lobby were very nervous and very excited, and the jury members seemed very intent on evaluating them.

We left them to their work and went off for a nap.

jmct714

I'm reading and enjoying, AZ! Looking forward to your impressions of Trieste.

AlessandraZoe

I'm still trying to put my impressions of Trieste in coherent thought before I put them into words. So I think I'll wait until I talk about our guided tour before I go into any detail.

But first, I want to talk about <b>Al Bagatto</b> http://www.albagatto.it/ .

Be forewarned: we are very willing to enjoy good but cheap street food, and we are also willing to spend a lot of money on a great meal. This was a "let's spend" night.

I am willing to pinch pennies in many ways, and I detest throwing away money on bad food. But if we think there's a chance the chef just might know what he or she is doing, we are tasting menu fanatics.

Along the same lines, we are big beer drinkers, but if we have a choice of a tasting menu, then we are not only "in" for whatever the chef chooses, but we'll also ask if there's a wine pairing option.

This place not only had a tasting menu but also a wine pairing AND an olive oil and bread pairing.

I kid you not.

We felt as though we were returning to the tastes of where we started our journey in the Cividale/Udine areas. And indeed, it turned out that Al Bagatto is a member of the same "farm to table" association as the restaurant <b>La Subida</b> http://www.lasubida.it/lasubida/en/index.php at the beginning of our cycling trip.

And such a sensory impression partly explains our overall impression of Trieste--it's as though it's a civilization that is part of Italy yet not. This restaurant, like others in Trieste, feels it is connected to a civilization a hundred miles away, and in such a very regional country such as Italy, it's not quite a mental fit.

But let me describe our meal. Well, actually, I can't. Did you ever have a meal where one just lives in the present throughout it? We had a choice of two possible tasting menus, and I think we could have done well with either one. From the amuse bouche onwards, we just savored every bite without worrying about food blogging it. When we had finished our glasses of simply excellent wine with each course, they were refilled.

In other words, they were going to charge us big time, but they were not going to skimp.

And this was a place where the waitstaff was as thrilled that we loved the food as we were thrilled that they cared so much about the food.

So yeah, the bill came to close to 400 USD. But we all said, "THIS was worth it."

We returned to our hotel to a blaze of camera flashes. Apparently, the jury of ITS are stars in Europe (none of whom we knew), and the crowd took a chance that maybe we were famous too.

Heck, after that meal, I sure FELT famous.

AlessandraZoe

We rose to our view of the sea from our beds. Lovely.

The breakfast buffet was nice in a bright large room, and we enjoyed the vibrancy of all those talented young people eating there, breathlessly yet hungrily waiting to make it big in the arts world through the ITS competition.

At 10:30 we met our guide for the tour included in our 48-hr FVG card outside the Trieste Tourist Office at the corner of the Piazza Unita d'Italia. Our tour guide was an older woman, who looked, of all things, Parisian.

She and her Tourist Office colleague called out the names of those that had reserved, and when there were a couple of no-shows, they invited others waiting at the sidelines to join.

Our guide kindly explained that the tour would encompass the older, original parts of Trieste, and that she would conduct the tour in two languages, Italian and English, taking turns as to which language she would begin with.

Since by this part of the trip, I had had to rely on a cane again (Lake Bled's staircases and I were no longer BFFs), she cautioned that we could be climbing up to the area of the original city and then would be descending steeply. I smiled and said that I had two strapping adults to carry me if need be.

With that we set off. She quickly explained that Trieste had always been more or less a "frontier" city, no matter what power ruled it, Romans, Habsburgs, Mussolini, Germans and Allied Forces.

It only returned to Italy in 1954, and I can tell you, although she did not say so, that Slovenians are still pretty mad about that. In their view, Slovenians in Yugoslovia fought bravely against the Nazis while Italy JOINED the Nazis, so they can't understand why Allied Forces rewarded Italy with this coastal gem.

As a result of all these ruling countries, the city is an architectural collage. The main square looks as though it came straight from Vienna (even though other people just swear it looks like Venice's St. Marks Square--SO NOT TRUE!), yet other buildings look like cupcakes in decorative Italianate style.

All kinds of churches abound: you can see within mere minutes Serbian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Helvetic Evangelist,Roman Catholic and Jewish places of worship, plus the ruins of Roman temples. One passes a Roman amphitheater, for goodness sakes.

The rise of Trieste as a huge port actually was a stroke of genius on the part of Austrian Emperor Charles Vl (or that of one of his brilliant advisers). In 1719, in the middle of the 500-yr reign of Hapsburg, Charlie declared Trieste to be a free (as in taxes) port. Ergo, it was free-market economics at its finest.

Coffee imports certainly benefited from this tax haven, and therefore, one wonders if it was Vienna or Trieste that truly invented "coffee culture".

We peaked our uphill tour at San Giusto Cathedral (another mix of all cultures)where we saw the old Roman market and a lovely view of the Adriatic, and then we made our way back down to the square, passing the Jewish district as we did so.

As I mentioned before, the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand really put an end to the dominance Trieste held on the Adriatic, so it was so moving to see the temporary funereal centennial exhibits on the square.

Quite frankly, we had a hard time understanding why there's been no huge rebirth of it as a port except for those monstrosities of cruise ships.

Having been to Rome, to Florence, to Istanbul, to Venice, and to Vienna, here's the conclusion we each individually arrived at, which we discussed at length over lunch:

The city reminded all three of us of Vienna, only one that felt abandoned to be run by Italians. It's a visual/sensual culture clash.

Our conversations with the locals over our 36 hours in Trieste were enlightening, too. To them, Triestians are the true multicultural Italians. Many of them summer in houses along the Croatian coastlines and hike from their camps in the Slovenian Alps. Nevertheless, they identify most with the Italian Udine/Cividale area, no matter how far away or how interior that area is.

They feel they have nothing in common with Venice, an hour or so away by train. To them, Venice is truly the abandoned city.

Interesting, right?

To be continued...

AlessandraZoe

<i>Just a note: I am so sorry I could not review Trieste pastries, coffee and gelato.

In the weeks prior to this trip, I had some problems resolving some digestive issues. In fact, for awhile there, all I was able to eat was white rice with chicken broth or almond milk. Yes, I was scared to death this would be my diet in Italy!

While I was able to resume most of my normal diet while on the trip, sweets and coffee and some fruits continued to present hurdles for me.

My husband and daughter did try a few pastries and some gelato there, though. Overall,my husband thought that the offerings paled compared to those in Lecce in Puglia two years ago.

Again, I feel bad I can't give a further report on this aspect of the Trieste food scene.</i>

AlessandraZoe

Our 48-hr FVG card gave us admission to many places, and I so wish we had had two more days in the city to explore the art museums.

But my husband and daughter had thought carefully about our possible choices, and they both believed that we should see the <b>Civico Museo della Risiera di San Sabba</b>--Trieste's concentration camp museum.

Using our FVG card, we hopped the Line 10 Bus to where the line ended a block or two from the Risiera di San Sabba.

The Risiera was actually built in 1898 as a rice-husking factory. At first it was just a temporary prison camp for Italian captured soldiers, Stalag 339. But in October 1943, its purpose became a transit camp, prison camp and death camp for Jews and political prisoners.

The museum is not a large place, mainly because so much of the camp was destroyed by the Germans as they left. But the museum designers have kept intact some strong visuals.

The entrance is a tad hard to find on a side street. You enter it through a long cement tunnel. On the left is the main office where you can rent an audio guide.

You immediately proceed to the “death cell”, which was where prisoners who were going to be executed within a few hours were held, and also bodies to be cremated were stored there.

Further down, one gets to view 17 tiny prison cells with two small bunks. Nazis forced up to 6 prisoners to be held in each one. Later in the tour, you can see in a film that one of the camp survivors says he was locked in a cell for 5 months straight without sunlight.

What was chilling in this area were the two cells for torture.

Death methods varied. Sometimes vehicle gas exhausts were pumped inside. Some people were shot. A lot of the time people were simply clubbed to death. What struck me about the audio guide was that it avoided the term "execution", which makes sense. An execution implies a result of a court of law. Instead, the audio guide used the proper term: "murder".

Estimates of the number of people who passed through this camp, many of them on their way to other German death camps, range from 11,000 to as many as 20,000. Some of the Trieste Jews lodged here and transported elsewhere if they survived their stay here were the sick and aged from old people's home, many of whom were sent to Auschwitz.

It is estimated that 4,000 to 5,000 people died in this facility.

One can't see the crematorium. As the Yugoslavian fighters inched their way toward liberating Trieste in April 1945, the Germans blew it up to try to cover up their crimes. But human ashes and bones and such things as the club they used to torture and murder gave away the purpose of the place.

The architects who designed the museum recreated the shape of the building’s floor only, using metal plates to trace the outline

One gets to see Risiera’s archives in a separate area, where a 1/2 hour documentary plays. The almost 50 panels under glass contain photos, newspapers, prisoner letters , identity cards, and even ashes of Jews murdered in Auschwitz.

As other visitors have mentioned, probably the most horrible thing is a German accounting document. It describes the cost of housing a prisoner, of the cost of gas needed to kill the prisoner, balanced by the revenue gained from his gold teeth and personal property.

The officers chosen to run this camp by Himmler had already proved themselves at other death camps. Most of them were eventually caught and tried by the Allied War Crimes courts.

Most were sentenced to death, but the senior commander committed suicide before his trial.

Dai

Still following along, Alessandra...I'd love to enjoy a meal like that (if someone else were buying!) sounds like a meal you will never forget. Lucky you!

Not being a history buff, I had no idea so many people were murdered there in WW2. Thank you for sharing what you learned.

AlessandraZoe

Thanks, Dai. I had to take a breather, but I'm nearing the end of the Trieste part, at least.

Leaving the <b>Civico Museo della Risiera di San Sabba</b> ,we now headed to our second activity of the day: the <b>The Castle of Miramare</b> http://www.castello-miramare.it/eng/.

We again hopped Bus 10 line to descend to the Trieste harbor. Since I was not the Trip Planner for 48 hours (I was so happy), I think but am not sure if we took Bus 6 to the train or bus station. I am sure that we eventually took Bus 36 to Miramare.

Again, our FVG card paid for all our transit. Our midday ride on the 36 bus was with beachbound teens, and we could not help but notice that people were dragging lawn chairs onboard since "the beach" often merely consisted of paved stone.

There seem to be two entrances to Miramare via bus: one at the top and one at the bottom. The top one was closed so we were left with the second stop at the bottom. Yes, that meant we had to walk uphill (not that hard for most of you; a big deal to me with the cane), but that same walk allowed us a preview of cafes we might want to visit when we came back to the bus stop.

Plus, the walk uphill was in the shade, and there was a cool breeze coming off of the sea.

I had copied and sent on our Miramar information to my husband and daughter; I did not read any of it because I did not want to be tempted into trip planning this segment of our trip. Therefore, I had no expectations and was absolutely delighted to see this place.

The gardens of Miramar alone are worth a visit. If we were to come back, I'd bring a picnic lunch. It was just so darn pretty, even though the botonists were completely revamping the grounds. The large park contains both an English-style and Italian-style garden, and it's brimming with rare plants, sculptures and ponds. Along "the Castle", the park descends to the sea in wide steps.

Built between 1856 and 1860, the Castle stands on the tip of the promontory of Grignano, but strangely enough, from the inside looking out, it seems as though it's at the level of the sea.

Its builder, Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, whom I shall refer to merely as "Max", quickly rose to be Rear Admiral and Commander of the Austrian fleet. Max loved his time on board navy ships, and requested that the architect keep that feel, especially in his study. And even though the Castle has 20 rooms in it, it actually feels intimate.

The story of Max and Charlotte is pretty interesting. Charlotte was the daughter of Leopold I of Belgium (both Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were directly related to Leo), so both of them were really connected as far as royal circles go.

As seemed to happen often, people with royal blood of any type were offered "jobs" by other countries. Around the time of the American Civil War, a Mexican deputation informed Maximilian that part of the Mexican people were in favour of restoring a monarchy. France's Napoleon III had suggested Max for the job, and Max gave up any chance of nabbing the Austrian throne in order to become Emperor of Mexico.

It didn't work out.

The so-called Mexican support (and even more important, the French support) wasn't really supportive. Charlotte scrambled to get back to Europe in an unsuccessful bid get international help, begging Nap III and the Pope endlessly.

Meanwhile, in 1867, unbeknownst to Charlotte, Maximillian was taken prisoner and eventually shot. Remember that series of paintings by Édouard Manet, "The Execution of Emporer Maximilian"? Yes, this is the guy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Exe...ror_Maximilian)

Charlotte descended into madness, many months before she ever found out about the fate of her husband, and she eventually died back in Belgium.

Another husband and wife were destined for tragedy there, too. Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta, was Italian royalty and certainly born with a surfeit of good looks, brains, money and privilege. However, throughout his lifetime, Trieste citizens adored him and also his wife Anne of Orleans because they were genuinely good people who took the responsibility, not the trappings, of position seriously.

Educated in England, when he entered the military, he and his father totally agreed that he should never be given special treatment. This brilliant and handsome man was beloved by those he led. His military genius meant that he ended up becoming the Italian Viceroy of Italian East Africa during the early years of WWII.

When Africa fell to the British, he was captured and kept in appalling conditions. Still, upon his death from maleria and tuberculosis there, even British Commanders wore black armbands as a sign of respect for an ultimate soldier and gentleman.

I am trying to find a biography of him, and most things I'm seeing are out of print. I should have shopped for something in the Miramare gift shop.

Anyway, as I looked at the pictures of him and his family, I wondered if had he lived, if the concentration camp we had just visited would ever had been put into action (he died well before it became active).

sartoric

Thank you AZ for your considered and very interesting report.

We spent only a brief time in Trieste enroute to Pula where my husbands mother was born in 1932. She is reluctant to talk about their wartime experiences, but did elaborate on one. Her school bus was stopped by the Nazis, their teacher was executed on the side of the road. Something no one should ever have to witness, especially children.

We must go back to Trieste (and Pula). Your report helps to put that return trip higher up the list.

Do hope the foot is better.