Ports of Greece and Rome: A Saturday in Trieste

Everyone is out and about this morning and the city has a wonderful buzz.

We are still amazed, having come from Rome, that in the same country, one city can be so grotty and chaotic another so smart and clean and orderly, yet very, very alive.

There is a bit of a party feel this morning, with a gypsy band, a few clowns, lots of children, a bride or two and lots of people just going about their Saturday morning shopping, coffee drinking, and general mooching.

So we mooched too - to the Teatro Romano

And the veggie and flower market around the Grand Canal

Grand Canal

...and James Joyce was out walking too.

Verdi was lounging around amongst the dahlias and begonias

And the locals were drinking coffee - there are huge numbers of cafés. The building in the distance is, appropriately, the Lloyd Triestino building. Apparently banking and insurance is now the economic mainstay of Trieste, rather than shipping, but there is still very large ship building at Malfalcone just down the coast near the airport. In addition, Trieste is the main oil tanker place for oil supply into Germany, Austria and Slovakia, which probably earns them a few euros. There is certainly evidence of euros being around....

This afternoon while TK rested his broken arse, I set about breaking mine by going up to the top of Giusto Hill, to find the cathedral with its 12 century mosaics and the castle and defensive walls which afford great views in 360 degrees across the whole city. I found this arch on the way up.