Latins, Germans, Slavs, and Tourists

Our last stop in the land of pasta, ruins, and horrible driving today was in Trieste, the meeting place of Latin, Slavic, and Germanic cultures.

We started the day with a walk along the marina and up the only section of canal in the city the, somewhat pointlessly named, grand canal. Part of a wider canal building programme designed in the 1740s but cut short by the rather sensible logic of Maria Theresa of Austria. 

Without planning it we were pulled back into some classical history with the roman basilica of Trieste. 

In our first Austro-Hungarian fortress of the trip we came across a whole arms museum. Trieste is very much at the crossroads of Italian and Austro-Hungarian history and the series of statues from both powers present in the city attested to this. 

The real question is who is your money on, Rob or the sump gun?

Up on the top of the fortress we were afforded with a huge panoramic view of the port of Trieste with this mysterious silver ship moored right in the middle of the harbour. After some googling it turns out this is the largest yacht in the world which belongs to a Russian billionaire and was seized at the start of the Ukraine War.

Back down the bowels of the fortress we came across a whole Roman museum and were treated to these excellent mosaics.

Melon of Trieste. Speaks for itself.

Coming down into the bay of Trieste we decided to stop off and catch a bit of Roman theatre with our lunch. Sadly we were about 2 thousand years too late for the play.

Back on the road again we said goodbye to Italy and headed off to two new countries in one day: Croatia and Slovenia. For the next two weeks we will be working our way through the north Balkans and eventually ending at our next big destination of Vienna.

Rob's favourite fact: when the third bastion was added to the fort it faced inland because at the time the biggest threat to Trieste from the Turks came from land not sea

Danni's favourite fact: The modern name Trieste comes from the Roman name Tergeste meaning market-city