Trieste

Tucked into the far eastern corner of Italy, the seaside town of Trieste is very close to the Slovenian border and a choice beach destination for Italians and Slovens alike.

Work brought me to Trieste for nearly two weeks. During that time, I had the opportunity to enjoy an aperitivo in nearly every cafe in the magnificent Piazza d'Unita Italia (pictured above and below). This piazza is also noted for it's location, heading straight out into Gulf of Trieste. The local favorite is an orange drink called the spritz aperol, made with Campari's aperol aperitif, prosecco, and soda water. Garnished with an orange slice, it is perfectly refreshing on a hot June day.

One early dinner (the only leisurely one!) had us at a gorgeous restaurant's seaside patio, dining on some of the freshest seafood I've ever had. While I ordered the sea bass baked in salt (yum), one of my companions ordered this spiedini of seafood - a more interesting dish for certain.

I was also fortunate to spend some time at the Castello Miramare, the 19th century castle designed and inhabited by Austrian archduke Ferdinand Maximilian and his wife, Charlotte of Belgium.

The castle is perched cliffside to the Gulf of Trieste and a bit up the road from town. The clear day provided spectacular views of the sea with views straight to Istria (an noted Croatian beach area).
The design of the castello, like many other buildings in Trieste, is heavily influnced by Austrian architecture. Sensible, considering that Trieste only became part of Italy during a post-WWI annexation. Prior to that, it was an important port city to the Austro-Hungarian empire. The 22 hectares of seaside and landscape park make this multipurpose castle and attractive draw today.

Trieste

I continue to count my lucky stars. Not only do I get to live here in Italy but I get to work here too! While that part definitely has it's pitfalls, any work-associated travel is definitely a plus. While I've been to Friuli-Venezia Giulia before (for our January ski trip), this was my first trip to the region's capitol.

Trieste was a part of the Austrian (and Austrian-Hungarian empire) from 1382 until 1918. It joined Austria in 1382 for protection from the Venetian empire. Trieste was annexed back into Italy following the end of World War II, simultaneously losing status as a major port power. The Austrian influence is most evident in the architecture of the Piazza Unita d'Italia, a spacious piazza that faces the seafront.

The road to the highway winds along the shore and there are quite a few sight-seeing points just a few kilometers up the coast. On the way back to Milan, our group stopped at an Autogrill for lunch. Autogrills are the Italian version of highway fast food - located mainly off of highways (and sometimes, literally, on top of them). I have to ask you, do the pictures below look like any kind of fast food you've ever seen in the States?

Snowboarding (aka: How Mark Broke His Nose)

It was a dark (well, not too dark) and snowy day. Mark and his brother went to the ski/snowboarding shop near their hotel to rent snowboards for their day out on the slopes. To their dismay, the shop was out of equipment for rental. Undaunted, they resolved to call with a reservation the next day. While in Venice, they were again disappointed to learn that no rentals were possible and that they would have to rent from the VERY EXPENSIVE shop right on the slopes at Piancavallo.


Since they'd driven four hours to get there, it was a little too late to abandon the plans completely. Pickings were slim at the shop the next morning and Mark got a snowboard that was longer than the prior board he rented. Not knowing what this actually meant (this is only his second day snowboarding!) he hauled it out to the kiddie slope for a few practice runs. At this particular kiddie slope, there's actually a small hill you have to go down in order to get to the life.


Mark, excited to get started, strapped his feet in for the small hill....and fell. Flat on his face. While the helmet he was wearing protected the top of his head, he would've needed a hockey mask to avoid the damage to his face. Bleeding from multiple locations and walking away with a swollen and slightly bruised eye, his main thought was the cost of all that damn equipment. So he picked himself up and kept going, trying to adjust his center of balance with this new (longer) board. In fact, with all the swelling, it wasn't until he got home two days later that his lovely and attentive wife noticed that he had broken his nose! Luckily, the damage was minor and you'd probably only notice if you saw his face as often as I do but his nose is definitely crooked. Crooked enough to see a doctor? Nah.


The aforementioned kiddie slope has a very interesting lift method. While all of the other runs have chair lifts, this one has a standing lift of sorts. I was really nervous the first (and second) time that I went up it. You basically get in a single file line at the base of a long tube on the hill side. When you get closer, you can see a strip of rubber tracking that goes up the mountain inside the tube. There are suction cups on the rubber that theoretically hold your skis/snowboard to the ground but when the track stops abruptly - some of the suction cups pop off. And if you're ever been on a chair lift that stops a million times because newbie doesn't know how to get on or off, you'll know how often this one stopped. You also have to watch your balance (lean forward!) so that you don't go tumbling backwards when the track stops moving. I had a close call and came pretty close to being that newbie jerk who falls down in the middle of the darn lift.

The guys were pretty lucky that, despite broken bones, they quickly made it to the grown-up runs and even down a few black diamonds before the weather gave out.

Il Castello di Caneva

On our last full day in the Dolomites, we were torn between heading to the slopes once more and exploring the town we were staying in - Aviano. Since it was an Italian holiday, we shied away from the slopes, thinking they'd be a little too crowded for our novice selves. We knew things in town would be quiet but it was essentially a ghost town when we set foot in the main piazza. I half expected to see tumbleweeds rolling across the steps of the local Duomo.


So we hopped back into the car and decided to take off spontaneously, hoping we'd run across something interesting (and open). We first instructed the Tom-Tom to take us to Trieste. Wow - 2.5 hours? Nevermind. How about Udine? That's a big-ish city, right? Oh, two hours and countless euros of gasoline...forget it. The National Park of the Dolomites? Ugh, my stomach and vertigo can't take any more winding roads. So...let's just drive.

Heading down a road that ran along the bottom of the Dolomite range, we were lulled into relaxation by the snow-peaked mountains and the bare foliage surrounding us. We passed countless vineyards (the wine of the region is excellent) and several small towns. However, we didn't pull into any of the towns instead opting for the beautiful scenery accompanying us on this quiet country roads. Just when we were starting to think about a different venue we saw the sign.

Il Castello di Caneva, the Caneva Castle.

Castle, we thought. We like castles.

So up we went. First on paved roads that curled around large hills and small mountains. Then, on some not-so-paved roads that made yours truly a little nervous. It's not that I'm afraid of a little gravel. Or the San Francisco grade steepness. It's more the extreme height we were climbing, coupled with the narrow road and the lack of guardrail. If I hadn't been driving, I would've closed by eyes and held my breath til the top!


When we reached the top, we were initially disappointed to see that it was closed. Without another car or human in sight, we figured it was shut down for the holiday. Upon further inspection, however, we noticed that there was no chiuso signs and nothing to stop us from hiking from the parking lot to the castle on high.


As far as castles go, this one wasn't anything particularly special on it's own. There was no historical information posted but the internet tells me it was built in the medieval ages and in use through the 19th century. The walls of the castle were crumbling down but the church seemed to be in good condition. I was surprised until, reading online, I learned that the Chiesa di San Tommaso was re-built in the early nineteenth century. We couldn't get inside but were able to walk around the exterior, where the cemetery happened to be. Some of the graves were a couple hundred years only while some were as recent as the 1980s. We perched at the top of the hill to take in the view below. That same position was once taken by Fruili watchmen, looking out for Turkish invaders in the 1500s. Later, it was viewed through the eyes of the French and Austrian/Hapsburg occupiers. However, on this quiet day in Caneva, Italy, the view existed only for us.

Piancavallo, a winter wonderland

After working through the holidays (ok, an exaggeration. I may not have actually "worked" on holidays...but I didn't take any vacation!), we decided we were overdue for a vacation. Landing on a spectacular deal, we scored a one bedroom apartment for a grand total of $150 (that's no mistake folks, dollars) for four night at the foothills of the Dolomites. Taking advantage of a couple Italian holidays in the beginning of January, we packed up the car and set off for the mountains!


Instead of skiing on our first day, we headed up from our apartment to the resort area, dog in tow. Piancavallo is situation in a plateau amidst the Eastern Alps in the province of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Straddling the border between Italy and Slovenia, the resort is firmly on the Italian side. While not a huge resort, there's a respectable 12 chairlifts and several different runs (24 kilometers worth) from most of the lifts.


Down at our "base camp" we were snow-free. However, as we drove up the mountain, we quickly realized that we were entering a winter wonderland. Cooper was ecstatic to see the snow! Given his previous reaction (shaking it off, running back indoors), we figured that our walk around town would be short-lived. To our surprise, his water-loving instincts took over despite the frozen nature of said water. Our boy even managed to dig out a stick in the snow.


Coop and Mark rough-housed in the snow for awhile. With the sun starting to slip behind the mountains in the background, they ran over several feet of packed snow managed to soak themselves thoroughly.


The next day, we set out sans-dog with our snowboarding and skiing equipment. We were both a bit nervous. In my case, I haven't skied since my senior year of college when I managed to fracture my elbow on the slopes. This was my first time 'getting back on the horse'. For Mark, he'd never skied before and his only snowboarding experience came in the form on a two-hour lesson at the indoor ski slope at Dubai's Mall of the Emirates. Luckily, it didn't take too long for us to get off the bunny slopes and by the end of the day, we were taking a chance (in my case, just one) with the red slopes!