Lido Ancora, e una Gita a Trieste

Hi family and friends,

This weekend seemed to come a little early since there wasn't a trip planned. You know, like in the past, we've gone to places like Murano, Padova, Vicenza and Valdobbiadene, but there was nothing this Friday. Maybe just because we have such a big trip coming up next weekend... that is, we have a huge bike tour of Lido next Friday, as a part of the Architecture class.

But this didn't stop us. We had beautiful weather on Friday; it really started on Thursday, which we kind of started by going to our Irish friend Sally's apartment (some of my friends, the Americans this time, went there for dinner -- instead, I stayed and ate at the mensa with some other San Servolo people, also BC friends. I went to Sally's apartment to meet with the others afterward. It was a nice evening.

But Friday was absolutely beautiful. The sun was shining brightly as soon as I woke up, and I quickly got to the vaporetto with Anthony to go out to Lido. We met up with a few other of our friends and were joined by a couple more. It was an incredible afternoon, just lying down under the sun, talking, watching other people, listening to music, and playing frisbee. The water was ice cold but the sun was so hot! So we're actually kind of getting tan; we were out there from 1 until about 6. But don't worry, we're wearing sunscreen so we don't burn, we do know that the sun is brighter here. Anthony and I were playing frisbee when this guy Mimo, maybe a few years older than us, came up and asked what the game was (he spoke Italian but no English, and we thought he and his friends were of North African descent) - we said, frisbee, but with an Italian accent, so frisbi. Also to simplify we introduced ourselves as Andrea and Antonio. But Mimo and his friends asked if we wanted to play some minicalcio (minisoccer) with them, so of course, we ended up playing keep-away for an hour or so. The ball was kind of lame though, it was too small and a little flat. But it didn't really matter, it was so much fun playing calcio on the beach in Italy. That was definitely something I wanted to do when I came here.

The beach definitely tired us out. Know how you don't really do anything out on the beach, you just kind of get sun-tired? Yeah, well that happened to us. But it was an early morning on Saturday... a few of my friends, Emily and Jason in particular, Anthony also, had been planning to go to Trieste. Trieste is east and north of Venice in the region known as Friuli-Venezia-Giulia (I know it's kind of long and has three names, but it has to do with the collective identity or lack thereof between the people in that area, since it changed hands so many times). One thing that is also interesting is that Trieste is really, really close to Slovenia... if you look at a map, it's on this little peninsula of Italy that is surrounded by Slovenia. So I met Emily, Shinobu (one of the Japanese girls) and Jason at the vaporetto station at 7:35 Saturday morning, and we walked through the sestiere of San Polo toward the train station. The early morning is my favorite time of day in Venice. I don't know why, maybe because it's fairly empty and you really see a different side of the city that feels more normal and more particular at the same time. There are shopkeepers winching open their awnings, and the smell of coffee and pastries floats out of the doors and windows of caffes. It's also really quiet, and the silence fits perfectly with the delicate views from each and every bridge. There are also trash collectors, plowing their boats down the canals, and lifting heavy crates of refuse with the mechanical arm of their boats.

Once at the station, we bought our tickets for Trieste, there and back. It cost only 9,20 euro, which is pretty cheap. It was a regional train, however, which means that the journey, although short, would take two hours there and three hours back (they stop at more places on the return). But whatever. We got some coffee in a nearby bar and then boarded the train. The train ride went very quickly; we just really chatted about friends and family members, told some funny stories, and the next thing we knew we were soaring above the northernmost point of the Mare Adriatico. The view of the sea was incredible; Jason said it was his favorite train ride yet in Italy (although from Genova to Pisa was my favorite since we rode past the towns of Cinque Terre).

When we arrived in Trieste, which has actually a really nice train station, we walked into the city center to get a good feel of the place. We headed toward Piazza dell'Unita d'Italia, which is the main piazza. It is a huge, rectangular open space that made me think of Piazza San Marco in Venice. The similarities didn't stop there, however; in Trieste there is a "Palazzo del Governo" which is actually the equivalent of the Palazzo Ducale. There's also a clock tower with two figures of moors that strike the bell every so often, and this seems to recall the one in Venice. It was placed up there around the 13th century (we saw the original figures later), but I can't imagine that the Venice bellstriker figures came later. The Piazza has a beautiful view of the sea as well; it just opens right up onto the waterfront, similar in the way that the Piazzetta opens up on the Lago di Venezia (this is the place with the two columns in Venice, right next to the Palazzo Ducale). Trieste also has a "Canal Grande" which is just kind of lame when you realize it's just a place where they let water in for maybe 200 m so people could park some boats. The lamp fixtures of the main piazza, which would have been later additions, also had a similar style to those of Venice. I could see the similarities, in short, and it made sense, because Trieste did belong to the Republic of Venice at one point. Ah, it's just so crazy to think that the city where I'm living had one of the grandest and most rich empires of the age. Talk about over 500 years of decline. I wonder what the Venetian nobility of 1500 would have thought if they could've seen the cruise ships that go down the Canale della Giudecca every so often.

Anyway, so Trieste was great! It was actually kind of hot, which was annoying because I brought my coat with me and I didn't have anywhere to store it, unfortunately. On the upside, it was my half-birthday, May 2. So we celebrated (no, just kidding) by going to a trattoria not far from Piazza dell'Unita d'Italia. A few of us ordered the white pizzas there, at least, I did. And we ordered some of the white wine, which is really a specialty of Friuli-Venezia-Giulia. My Italian professor, Massimo, tells us all this useful information about the best products in each city or region, so when he recommends something to eat or drink we usually follow his directions.

We went on a walk after lunch, first down to the waterfront where they were preparing for a Marathon. The finish line had been set up in Piazza dell'Unita d'Italia, and there were all these little tents where people were handing out free sports drinks and stuff. I stared out toward the horizon on the Adriatico with Anthony while our friends went on a ferris wheel.

We then figured we wanted to climb up to the top of this hill where the Castello di San Giusto is. I should mention that I felt like Trieste is a combination of Torino and Genova... a vast simplification, I know, but the style of architecture and urban planning in Trieste seemed more Torinese despite the hilly layout (not as hilly however) of Genova. But we walked up La Scala Gigante -- that is, the Gigantic Stairway, which really was called that, and really deserved to be called that. We enjoyed reading the graffiti scrawled over the stairs... this guy named Cristiano was crazy about Lisa, we learned.

At the top was a huge war memorial. I should Wikipedia Trieste and include some interesting information about the war history of Trieste and the crucial battles that took place there during the last century. However, that would be presumptuous of me and I don't have Will with me to back me up historywise. But it should suffice to say that we saw memorials everywhere... these little stones etched with red letters for Dalmatian or Friuliani soldiers who fell during a battle or were lost at sea.

We reached the entrance to the Castello San Giusto and paid the 2,60 entrance fee. This let us walk around on the battlements for a spectacular panorama of the entire city. We couldn't tell where the line was, but we knew that somewhere out there was Slovenia. Really close by. The view of the sea was the best, however, and even though a weird sunshower was happening, it was perfect. Then we got the quotidian craving for gelato and set off on a new adventure in hopes of satisfying our desire. We descended the stairs and walked for a good half-hour, but we couldn't find any gelaterie. We changed our direction and headed back toward the water... and yes! We found an amazing street, all pedestrian with tables and chairs set up in the middle under huge ombrelloni. I got cherry-flavored gelato, one of my favorites, and we all sat down on a bench near a fountain to watch people walk by. It was seriously sooo much fun just relaxing and watching people! So many people were wearing purple yesterday, now that I remember. We got up and continued, passing two movie theaters across the street from each other (which is annoying because there are only two movie theaters total in Venice, and they're really small). But anyway, my friends noticed that they're playing the Wolverine movie at this cinema in Trieste, and I asked if they wanted to see it. But they decided to say "no" when I told them (and then they asked inside and found out) that it was dubbed in Italian, that is, without subtitles. Too bad, because I wanted to go... oh well, maybe I'll try to go to the movies in Venice with John again if it isn't acqua alta.

We then walked back to the train station. It was essentially the end of our trip to Trieste... our train left at 7, so we first bought some bread, meat and cheese to put together some panini on the train. While we were on the train, something kind of weird happened. The ticket controller, a woman with purple glasses (see? purple! they were really cool though) checked our tickets, but the Americans who had joined us bought the ticket for another train that takes a shorter amount of time to travel from Trieste to Venice. The woman was trying to explain to UVA Tim, but her English wasn't so good, so I had to kind of act as interpreter. She told me to explain the situation to all the others because they had bought a cheaper ticket that took less time, and they were now on the longer train. Ah, boring situation anyway, there's no need for me to tell any more.

That's about all for now. Today I've just been relaxing and catching up on some work... I do have some plans though. I'm going to Treviso at 4:15 to take a look around, some of the Italians from VIU are going to show me the city (it's really small so there's not much to see though). So that's it. More later... I'll tell about my trip to Treviso.
Andrew