TDudette

Caught up with your TR now!

With what were the zucchinis stuffed at La Subida, please? Thanks for the link to Ana Ros. An oodle is 1/5 of caboodle, fyi.

LOL. Funny about your ITS ARTWORK photos! And where did you find gelato in Trieste?! We visited only Miramare and the area around the water’s edge but did a cursory and unsuccessful look for gelato.

Lots of trouble with the way the Allies carved up the world, eh? Horrible to read what your mother witnessed, sartoric.

Venice is magical. More, please!

AlessandraZoe

TDudette:

I think the zucchini blossoms were stuffed with ricotta.

We actually ran into quite a few gelato/pastry/cut fruit shops in Trieste once we headed a couple streets away from the harbor.

A lot of side streets run parallel to the harbor off of the main square, and these are the areas of intense "passeggiata" (people strolling to check out each other). That's where there are a lot of cafes and bars and gelaterias around.

I forgot to add in the report that for that reason, we stopped both days in Trieste at an outdoor cafe whose name we never learned (it had a purple canopy if that's any help) in one of those side streets that had everything from chaise lounge seating to high tops.

It seems to be standard Trieste practice to serve some good nibbles along with the drinks, so we spent around an hour each day there making up stories about the couples or families passing us by.

TDudette

We were there in March. We based in Venice so it was a day trip. Glad to read there was gelato! We felt the same duality in the nature of the city.

AlessandraZoe

TDudette--If someone had suggested a day trip to Trieste to me a year or two ago, I would have questioned it. Now I think a day trip from Venice to spend an afternoon at Miramare would certainly be sensible. I think of how much time it took for us to get to and back from Burano in 2009, and it's about the same time investment.

AlessandraZoe

After leaving <b>i Frari</b>, we wanted a quick bite. We got a take-out wrap and looking for our new favorite type of eating spot: steps leading down to a canal by a bridge so we could observe gondola action.

"Gondolier Central" here near the church was funny. A really cute charming gondolier snagged customers coming down the bridge steps, probably headed for the church, and the wife in any party automatically was pulling on her husband's sleeve to consider it. As soon as the deal was made, the guy disappeared out the corner and brought out a far less, ahem, "charming" gondolier to take them. It wasn't quite a bait-and-switch, but I'm sure the wives felt that way. The charming one would wave to them as they left, would turn to us and wink.

Business was brisk.

Using the <b>Maps.Me</b> app, we threaded our way out to the Rialto Bridge and over to <b>Chiesa Santa Maria dei Miracoli</b>.

I may only have found this out-of-the-way church in 2009 because we had stumbled on it, but if one wanted to find an ideal location for a wedding, this church is IT:
--Located on a really cute square that is
--By a canal (a gondola can deliver the bride and bridal party)
--Colored inside in pink, white and grey marble
--Proportioned perfectly

And if you are the bride and groom, everyone would be able to see you by the altar--it's high up a step of stairs.

So if you are looking for a wedding location, look no further:
http://www.italy2wed.com/wedding_des...a_dei_miracoli

The story behind the church is based on the icon of the Virgin Mary. It is known as "I Miracoli", The Miraculous, and it was credited with many miracles before the church even existed. It drew so many pilgrims that someone had the bright idea to use their donations to build a church around it. So in the 1480s, the church was built according to Pietro Lombardo's design.

TDudette

We trained to Trieste, Padua and Treviso on that trip. Time more restricted.

More TR, please!

AlessandraZoe

Wait a minute, TDudette--Those three cities all in one day? If that's true, no wonder you guys needed gelato.

AlessandraZoe

Trip Report again...

We left the <b>Chiesa Santa Maria dei Miracoli</b> and found our way back to the Rialto stop and headed for home. The day had turned pleasant, plus fate allowed us to head near the front of the boat to enjoy our Venice again.

We saw sitting by us two new arrivals with ear plugs holding their iphones. I mouthed, "Rick Steves" and they laughed and nodded. They had 1.5 days there, and they were trying their best to make the most of it. As we neared Accademia, one leaned forward and asked, "Tell me honestly, did you like the Guggenheim?" Before I could answer, my husband said, "I love Peggy." So they nodded to each other and made it off the ship just before the gates closed. I hope they enjoyed it.

As I said before, our hotel had a perfect view of the lagoon, San Giorgio Maggiore, and all the tourists hustling to and from St Mark's Square. We felt we should take advantage of it, and we sat in the hotel's outdoor area, drinking and nibbling happily with our latest reads. Part of the entertainment was watching the waiters fight their never-ending battle with the pigeons (all the tidbits come out hidden under napkin cloaks and one is wise to put a hand over one's drink just in case).

We also got to watch during this rest period and during our stay a never-ending parade of cruise ships. In a city where the low skyline is only occasionally dotted with domes and towers, it almost seems obscene to have one's sunlight blocked out by these massive ships. When my husband said something along those lines, a couple sitting next to us said, "Yes, but there's no better way to see the world."

We bit our tongues. Well, actually, I think both of us quickly gulped our beer. Hey, it works the same.

It was time to shower and dress for our finale restaurant, <b>Il Ridotto</b>.

chris45ny

Thanks for such an informative, detailed report.

AlessandraZoe

Thank you chris45ny.

AlessandraZoe

One of the reasons I had the concierge at <b>Londra Palace</b> book a table for us at <b>Il Ridotto</b> was a simple one-paragraph article that caught my eye a month before we left. The guy more or less said, "Just eat here." It was near our final hotel, and I thought, "Heck, sounds like this is a 'last night' type of meal."

Our food tour guide was not as enthusiastic about it(thus her recommendation of <b>Osteria Oliva Nera</b. I looked at the Il Ridotto pictures online again, and wondered about its stark interior. I read some bad reviews. And quite frankly, once I had tracked down its location, I again wondered about my choice. Its storefront-type outside didn't look inviting at all.

But my husband said he was really up for a good tasting menu and wine pairing, and this place had it. Plus he found it interesting that the outside was so off putting. "These guys are certainly not trying to nab walk-in tourists. I have high hopes." Ergo, his vote.

We had a marvelous experience. We were greeted by an older man, whom we found out later was Gianni Bonaccorsi, the chef. Consisting of two small rooms, the restaurant uses brick walls and mirror to create its vibe. Since we were on the early side, they offered us our choice of two tables in the larger room. We chose one right in front of the back mirrored wall. This gave both of us a view of any dining action in the rest of the room plus a peek at the outside. Different table settings of Murano glasses were the dominant color splashes in the otherwise stark decor. And those glasses would be changed throughout the meal.

We debated between the fish or the fish/meat tasting menus (either one was 70E), chose the fish, and asked for wine pairings. The tasting menu was five courses, along with an amuse bouche.

The dishes were beautiful and tasty, and we enjoyed each one.

What surprised us most, though, was how superb the wine pairings were**. This was not a place where if one downed the wine a little fast, a little more was poured into the glass. No, each drop was measured. But we had no complaints: our wine surpassed the standard of "informing" the food. In fact our dessert, a Pistachio Bavarois Cream Tangerine Gel, tasted pretty blah until we sipped our accompanying wine. Wow.

**<i>I would later read on our plane flight home that Gianni is the tasting brain behind the bacaro <b>Aciugheta</b>, famous for the depth of its wine list, which is caddy-corner from the restaurant.</i>

There had been complaints on some of the reviews about the service. We had a very good experience in that regard. It was a leisurely, well-paced dinner, and Gianni himself and another waiter were our primary servers. They weren't ultra friendly, but they also don't speak a lot of English. All I know is that when we left, both the waiter and Gianni came out into the street to see us off.

Is the restaurant worth its Michelin star? For France, no. But I'm convinced Venice simply does not have the culinary offerings I could find within any two blocks in, say, Paris. So I do think this restaurant's quality is worthy of recognition.

If one is on the fence, I'd suggest you make reservations for lunch and put yourself in Gianni's hands.

AlessandraZoe

It was a great evening, and we purposely zigzagged alleyways away from our hotel to the Rialto stop. We made sure we took Line 1 (the slow line) all the way down to San Zaccaria. We again lucked out and were able to sit in the front. It was a gorgeous way to end our last night in Venice.

Travel arrangements beckoned once we got to the hotel. This was decision time. We had several options for our airport return because of our location: an alilaguna OR a water taxi (between 100 and 120 Euros) straight to the airport; a water taxi to Piazzale Roma and then our pre-paid airport bus (a total of 65 to 75 Euros); or the method that would be "free" because we had already paid for RT airport bus plus a 48-hour vaporetto pass, a vaporetto to Piazzale Roma plus airport bus.

If we had had even the slightest bit more luggage, we would have opted for the water taxi straight to the airport because it involved the fewest steps.

Both time and bridge staircases were constraints between the "fast" vaporetto (Line 2) and the "slo-mo" vaporetto (Line 1) that both went the shortest distance to Piazzale Roma. To get the faster Line 2 meant more staircases and a longer walk, one that would be very hard for me to do with luggage with my physical limitations. So we would be playing against time no matter what line we chose.

As we approached the Londra Palace front desk, we decided we were going to chance it: we would take the slo-mo vaporetto (closest stop) back to Piazzale Roma in the morning and hop on the airport bus. In our minds, our budget decision automatically "reduced" the cost of the meal we had just eaten (Il Ridotto had equaled our cost for our Trieste tasting meal, only this time it was for two persons rather than three. Egads).

To make sure we could get out on time the next morning AND grab a quick coffee when the breakfast opened at 7 a.m., we checked out that night.

If one has struggled through all of this trip report, you may recall that at the very beginning of the trip, we had difficulty in achieving a hasty departure at the Antiche Figure, even though we had done everything possible the night before and the morning of our departure.

Our Antiche Figure history repeated itself here. The desk clerk, a person who had twice given us the wrong key (and was rather stubborn about its being the wrong one), did manage to complete our transaction without entering the wrong CVC. However, he would completely forget about us by the next morning. Heck, he would forget about us within ten minutes the next morning.

AlessandraZoe

We woke again to our view of the lagoon, sad to leave.

We made it downstairs by 5 minutes to 7:00, dropped our key off with the previous night's desk clerk, grouped our luggage by the door, and were helped by the buffet staff to pre-order coffees before they were totally set up. In fact, the waitstaff hustled so fast that we were able to eat yogurt, fruit, and some yummy bread/jam too.

At 7:10, we left our table, grabbed our luggage and headed out the door to the right for the first bridge stairs.

My knees and hip meant I had to take every step slowly and carefully, but yeah, I was in much better shape than I had been two weeks before when trying to make it across the Scalzi Bridge WITHOUT luggage.

I turned at the top of the steps to exclaim my achievement to my husband but...

...no husband.

Knowing we were in a time crunch, and figuring that he'd catch up to me somewhere, I kept going.

Finally I heard panting behind me just as I turned into the vaporetto walkway in time to get our ride.

"You won't believe this," my husband said, out of breath. "That desk clerk ran out of the hotel and demanded that I return to check out."

When my husband had yelled back to the desk clerk that not only had we checked out the night before, but that HE was the person who did so and that he had taken his key this morning, the desk clerk was having none of it. So my husband ran back and explained again. This time, a female associate at the desk sadly shook her head at my husband's explanation (my husband said she must have had it up to here with her brain-dead colleague), and quickly and sharply said something in Italian.

My husband was reluctantly "released" by the desk clerk.

Even though we were able to snag the vaporetto before it left the dock, we were running close to the mental deadline we had created when we had dropped our daughter off at the airport the day before.

And then we started laughing. The morning was just glorious. Our luggage was stored, we were sitting at the front of the boat. We were watching early commercial Venice kick into gear on the waterways. If the worst that happened was that we missed our flight, then we could deal. We are old enough to know that having a beautiful hour like this just doesn't happen often.

Note: <i> After the fact we realized that timewise and exertion wise, we might as well have taken the closest vaporetto to the hotel the “long way” around Venice to get to Piazzale Roma in just about the same time.</i>

Our disembarkation off the vaporetto at Piazzale Roma with luggage was uneventful. By this point, I knew every ramp and curb step-down in the Piazzale Roma area, so I had no physical problems whatsoever. We found the airport bus rank (that took a bit of head-scratching but then was so simple--duh, the one closest to the docks) and waited maybe five or ten minutes for the next bus.

We were on our way back.

Having been to the airport just 48 hours before, we knew exactly how to get inside, get upstairs and find our well-roped off US Airways line. And although we enjoy flying on Delta, we could not help but note that their lines were again in chaos over there.

We were through security with time to spare, and since we had managed to get Business Class upgrades (as my husband said, we got to "live large" this trip in so many ways), we enjoyed our lounge time with WiFi, newspapers, and the makings for me in the various coolers of an a.m. spritz, my way of saying good-bye to Venice.

The End

Bless you if you have made it all the way to the end of this report. If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer as best as I can.
AZ

AlessandraZoe

A friend just sent me this recent article about James Joyce in Trieste, but actually, it's more about Trieste than it is Joyce:

http://www.post-gazette.com/ae/books...s/201409070086

uhoh_busted

Wonderful report. Super trip. Such fun to read about!

AlessandraZoe

That is so kind of you, uhoh_busted.

I think I was so determined to get this trip down in writing because as my husband and I expressed to my mother and a friend last night, we realized that somehow, against all odds, this was a trip where we learned a lot. And while we have always, always traveled to learn, that does not mean an exponential increase in knowledge occurs.

Granted, if one is on a cycle, one tends to take in local scenery--or in my husband's case, local bars--and as a matter of course, one tends to learn a lot about how people live.

My husband, although he speaks no language other than English, does speak "beer" fluently, and he loves to buy rounds wherever just to get the gist of things.

But we were not on bicycles for most of this trip.

And we were staying above and certainly eating above our normal spending points, which tends to remove one from any kind of a "pulse" on the locality.

We both thought it was interesting to begin our time in Venice (a city where we had both been before, but in different decades) with a locally raised guide whose family would leave Venice forever after centuries of residence. Once her parents died, that would be it. She and her husband had already moved to the mainland; her children would have no interest in returning.

Yet we ended in Venice with time spent in the Arsenale district where there is still very much a local life.

We are also so happy that we "plopped" a lot along the way and talked to locals throughout Slovenia, Trieste and Venice, this time because we are so much older that we had the window of opportunity to dare to ask questions--and all of sudden we were happy that being older meant that not one person was offended by our asking those questions.

So I think so much of the trip's worth was that we had aged.