A Travel Adventure with Our Children – Trieste Italy

Monday, 17 June 2024

When I awoke at half past seven this morning The Splendida had already docked. It was a beautiful, clear morning and Trieste looked magnificent.

When researching this trip the kids all felt that the excursion to Venice was way too expensive and that they would do it on their own. They would take a water taxi to the city and perhaps go for the gondola experience.

The Earl woke up with a cough and a blocked nose and did not feel well so he opted to give today a miss. We had, in any case, decided not to go with the kids but to explore Trieste on our own. With him not being up to anything, I decided to go along with the kids.

To quote Robbert Burns, “The best-laid plans of mice and men oft go astray.” We discovered that there is no water taxi from Trieste to Venice! There is one from where the ships used to dock near Venice but they are no longer allowed to do that. The only way to get there would be a two to three-hour train trip. As it was already 10 o’clock when we discovered our error it was too late to rush off and risk missing the train back before the ship departed! So instead we explored Trieste on our own and did an hour-long hop-on hop-off bus trip! Note to self – There was a reason the organised trip to Venice was so expensive – pay the price or miss out! We had all been to Venice before so we weren’t too disappointed,

The architecture in Trieste is influenced by the period when the city was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire between 1867 and 1918.

Piaza Unita

Sasha waiting for the girls in the shade of a statue

Neptune

Photos from the bus trip are below. We listened to an audio guide through our earphones but taking photos through the windows of a moving bus was not easy. I am showing just a few. Everybody in Trieste, we were told, loves swimming and we drove past a very long promenade which I think is called Barcola. There are play parks for children and plenty of trees providing shade. For most of the locals, it is part of their routine to swim in the sea every day during the summer months.

Waiting to board the bus

Our Ship dominating the port

The canal

Teatro Romano was built in the first century AD.

Neoclasical Style Church Sant’Antonio Taumaturgo

James Joyce lived and wrote his novel, Ulysses in Trieste. His kids were born here too.

Part of The Barca

When we got off the bus we treated ourselves to some amazing Italian gelato. I then took some photos of some of the many sculptures

Sculptor Fiorenso Bacci’s bronze statue depicts a bersagliere carrying a Tricolour Flag as he enters the city. Three girls from Trieste are intent on sewing the flag that would wave from the bell tower of San Giusto on 30 October 1918.

Le Ragazze di Trieste sewing the tricolour and the bergsalierie carrying it

In 1916 Naszrio Sauro was hanged as a traitor by the Austrians as he fought for the unification of Trieste to Italy

When I got back to the shop Earl was feeling a bit better. We will go to dinner and the theatre tonight. The ship departs at 7. Tomorrow is a sea day so no internet.