Trieste, Italy - Day 52

We cruised right into the midst of Trieste and docked next to the city’s main plaza, the Piazza Unita d’Italia. Trieste is tucked into the eastern-most section of Italy right next to Slovenia. Since the 1300’s, the city had been part of Austria. After WW1, the city was Italian, then German, then Yugoslav, then overseen by a UK-US military administration and then overseen by the United Nations. Finally in 1954, Italy officially took over.

The city’s architecture is very reminiscent of Vienna. There are lots of nicely paved pedestrian-only streets with lots of cafes and shopping. We climbed up to the top of the city to visit the Castello di San Giusto and the adjacent cathedral. The views were incredible. We walked back down into the city to see the ruins of the Roman Theatre dating back to the 1st century AD and then sat on a piazza having coffee and pastry before heading out for a couple of hours scouring the shopping lanes.

After having lunch outdoors near a church, we headed back to the ship to pick up a shore excursion to Castelli di Duino. The Prince della Torre e Tasso and his family still reside in the castle and open it and its park to the public. The setting is quite incredible and we had an enjoyable afternoon viewing the vast amount of artifacts on display.

Later, we went to Spessa Castle in the Friuli region to taste the Collio D.O.C. wine. The castle has been fully restored and is now a hotel, golf club and winery. We had a lovely few hours sipping and looking out over the rolling hills before we headed back to our ship.

Trieste was another great port which we would love to come back to spend a little more time.