Italy/Slovenia 2024: Day 6, May 27: Trieste

It was finally time to say goodbye to Venice. Although I felt like we had stayed one day too many, the last day did give me the opportunity to get off the beaten track and see non-touristy parts of the city that I would have not otherwise experienced - and so for that I was grateful.

We boarded the vaporetto that would take us to the train station at around 9 am everything packed into carry-on bags.

Catching the train for Trieste was seamless.  After a couple hours, we arrived and schlepped our bags to the Hotel Solun.  

It was lunchtime, so we made our way to Trieste's Grand Canal and found a table on a floating dock inside the canal for at a waterfront dining experience.

Kathi and I both got personal pizzas - hers, margharita; mine with dribblings of pesto!

Walking south on the Via Roma, we kept an eye out for on-street dinner options.

At the Piazza della Borsa, there was this sign for the "Free Territory of Trieste".

The Free Territory of Triest was an independent territory between Northern Italy and the former Yugoslavia, along the north part of the Adriatic Sea. It became under the direct responsibility of the UN Security Council in the aftermath of World War II. It was established on February 10th, 1947, to accommodate an ethnically and culturally mixed population in a neutral independent country. The intention was also to cool down territorial claims between Italy and Yugoslavia, due to its strategic importance for trade with Central Europe.

Its administration was divided into two areas: one being the port city of Trieste, with a narrow coastal strip to the northwest (Zone A); the other (Zone B) was formed by a small portion of the north-western part of the Istrian peninsula.

For a period of seven years, Trieste acted as a free city, but the territory was de facto dissolved in 1954 and Zone A was given to Italy and Zone B was given to Yugoslavia. This created a border dispute which was only settled twenty years later with the signing of the bilateral Treaty of Osimo in 1975 (ratified in 1977).

Following the dissolution of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. In the map above, Zone A (the green area and a small part of purple area) and Zone B (the pink and most of the purple area), indicates how the territory was split following Yugoslavia's dissolution (green to Italy, pink to the People's Republic of Croatia, purple to the People's Republic of Slovenia).

Given to the calls for the US and the UK to come back, I guess some citizens are still not happy with how the area has been divided and culturally administered.  But I digress...

Just beyond the Piazza della Borsa, we came to the grand Piazza Unità d'Italia, celebrating the unity of Italy.

The piazza, with its Fountain of the Four Continents, faces the Adriatic Sea.

After dipping our hands in the Adriatic, we looked back across the Riva Tre Novembre at the massive Piazza Unità d'Italia...

Kathi wanted to head back to the hotel, check in and relax a little. I was still a little restless, so I went exploring. First, I wanted to see if I could find the Arco di Riccardo, the only remaining part of the city's Roman walls, constructed from 33–32 BC.  I did find it, surrounded by current residences and businesses; the eastern companion is no longer visible, incorporated in the interior of a building. 

Folk etymology credits the name of the arch as a corruption of Arco del Cardo ("Arch of the Cardo"), with a cardo being the main north-to-south route in Roman cities.

From the arch, I continued to ascend Roman stones along the Villa della Cattedrale, headed to the Cattedrale di San Giusto Martire and it's neighboring castello.

Located in the center of Trieste, the cathedral is the site of the first known human settlement, then the Roman forum, and, later, the unification of the two pre-existing churches of Santa Maria and the one dedicated to the martyr San Giusto. The two churches were incorporated under the same roof between the years of 1302 and 1320.

Saint Justus, known in Trieste for his works and almsgiving, was accused of impiety ( sacrilegium ) by some of his fellow citizens. According to Roman law, the judge had to verify the accusation in person. So Justus was summoned to the magistrate's private study and invited to make a sacrifice to the Roman gods - an invitation he refused. In scrupulous observance of the procedures, the magistrate Manatius sent Justus to prison for a period of "reflection". The following day Justus, again urged to sacrifice, refused; he was then flogged and - because he persisted in his refusal - condemned to death by drowning. Trieste tradition preserved the memory of the place of his martyrdom: the waters of the Gulf of Trieste off the present-day promontory of Sant'Andrea.

The body of Giusto, inexplicably freed from the ropes and weights with which he had been burdened, was carried by the waves to today's Riva Grumula. Prewarned by a dream, the priest Sebastiano warned other faithful and together they searched for the body. Having found it on the beach, they buried it in a hidden place not far from the sea.

Both the bell tower and the facade of the church are generously covered with finds from the Roman period. The entrance portal was created from an ancient funerary monument. The bronze busts were added in 1862 to the facade, placed on brackets made from Roman pedestals. The busts represent three illustrious bishops: Enea Silvio Piccolomini, later Pope Pius II, Rinaldo Scarlicchio (discoverer of the relics venerated in the cathedral), Andrea Rapicio, a 16th century humanist, and Bishop Antonio Santin.

The enormous rose window is set in limestone, found throughout Italy.

Entering the cathedral, I was immediately struck by the beautiful side alters in the nave; this one with a depiction of the pieta.

Others were much more elaborate.  

The two lateral apses (corresponding respectively to that of the Basilica of Santa Maria and the chapel of San Giusto) are decorated with magnificent mosaics, the work of Venetian and Constantinopolitan craftsmen.

The apse of Santa Maria features a splendid depiction of the "Theotokos" (Greek for "Mother of God"), seated on a throne with the Christ Child in her arms and flanked by two archangels, with the apostles, including James and Thaddeus, below.

For a euro, you can light up the apse and its amazing 13th century Byzantine mosaic of the Christ, the Pantocreator. 

The main altar of the cathedral was consecrated in 1385 by the first German bishop of Trieste, Henry de Widenstein, appointed by the then Austrian emperor Leopold III.

The bell tower is squat, shortened after having been struck by lightening in 1422.  Nevertheless, climbing the tower provides great views of Trieste and the castello nearby.  

Coming back down, you can see evidence of some of the Roman pieces (columns, tiles, etc.) incorporated into the structure. 

Just outside, monuments to "Theotokos"

Next to the cathedral, were vestiges of the 1st century, ancient Roman forum.

And, next to that, the Castello di San Guisto, built between 1468 and 1636 as a fortress and residence for the Austrian Imperial Captain.  It went through several modifications until it became a museum in the 1930s.  

I did not go in, thinking that I would likely return with Kathi. Adjacent to the ancient Roman forum, and at the end of the Parco della Rimembranza, is the Monumento ai Caduti di Trieste a memorial to those who died in the First World War.

Engraved on the stone base is the dedication "Trieste / to the fallen / in the war of liberation / MCMXV - MCMXVIII". The First World War is locally defined as a war of liberation, underscoring the passage of Trieste from the Austro-Hungarian Empire to Italy at the end of the war.

Leaving the castle compound, I couldn't help taking note of covering these historic bricks, as others have for almost one thousand years!

Walking along the Via Tommaso Grossi, ancient walls and ramparts...

Along the Viale Ragazzi del '99, a back entrance to the castle fortress...

Along the route, smaller stones, scattered among the grounds, memorialize some of the fallen.

Descending the hill, on the Via Capitolini, I came across the entrance to the Parco della Rimembranza.

Coming nearly full circle, you can see the castello and war memorial from below.

Cutting through the Parchetto giochi di via Capitolina, and continuing to descend, breaks in the trees allowed splendid view of the city of Trieste bleow.

At the base of the park, lies the Tor Cucherna, a medieval tower built in the 14th century originally used for night surveillance of the city walls. Unfortunately, the walls of Trieste were destroyed after the proclamation of the Free Port, in 1719, to leave the city the freedom to expand. But Tor Cucherna was spared because it was transformed into a residence. Thanks to the restoration of 1910 it finally regained the appearance of a tower.

From the tower, more view of the city unfold...

Along the Via di Donota, I descended further still into a small green space perched above the compact, 1st century Teatro Romano di Trieste.  

Capable of seating 3,500 to 6,000 spectators, the theatre had been built as early as the Augustan age, only to be refurbished at the beginning of the second century on the initiative of Quintus Petronius Modestus from Trieste, procurator of Emperor Trajan.

Considered lost, it was identified in 1814 and unearthed in 1938 during the demolition of this part of the old city.

The statues and inscriptions found in the excavations are kept in the San Guisto Castle at the top of the hill.

After a long afternoon, trapesing around Trieste, I rejoined Kathi back at the Hotel Solun.  In the fading light, we set out to find a meal.  The fading sun, creating a magical mirror effect on the placid Grand Canal of Trieste.

We were pretty indecisive about where to eat, fatigue finally planting us at a table at Njoy, on the Via San Nicolo. Kathi had linguine with tomato ragu, pine nuts, basil and buffalo stracciatella and I had a surprisingly extra delicious potato gnocchi with beef goulash!

Perhaps even more surprising and delicious was the in-house drink, the SPRITZ N'JOY. We asked the waitress and she told us it was basically a Hugo spritz, but with strawberry puree added. Now it all our little secret!

Walking back to the hotel, we were treated once again with a beautiful, peaceful scene along the untrammeled Grand Canal of Trieste.