Trieste, Italy (ancestral home of the Persis)
Trip Start
Jun 07, 2006
1
35
70
Trip End
Ongoing
Trieste,
Italy
Sunday, September 17, 2006
We arrived in Trieste on the Sunday evening and found our meeting point at a lookout overlooking the city. We had been advised not to drive into town as the roads are narrow and parking is limited. Luckily, we found a campsite about 200m away, so we checked in then went to meet Ian Persi (an old friend of Andrew's), his dad and his uncle and aunt. Ian and his dad were there for a month's visit, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Mr Persi (Marco) leaving Trieste to emigrate to Australia.
After greetings and introductions, we all headed off for some drinks at a local café, beginning the long process of catching up. We then caught the tram/cable car down the really steep hill to the city of Trieste. Trieste was a lot bigger and a lot nicer than what we had both expected. Ian gave us a quick tour around the place, having been there for a few weeks with his dad already, then we stopped in to a swanky bar for a couple of beers, before we caught the last cable car back to the campsite for the night.
The following day, after a bit of a sleep in, we went back down to Trieste with luggage in hand to spend a couple of days at the Persis' apartment, right in the middle of town. The apartment has been in the family for seven generations and was where Mr Persi had grown up. In fact, nearly everything surrounding the apartment and in the city had some special personal story attached to it, which meant we really got a good idea of what life in the city used to be like, directly from someone who had lived there.
After he cooked us a great pasta lunch, we walked with Ian to the Basilica Di San Giusto, the beautiful church high on a hill overlooking the city and the port. After admiring the mosaics inside the church, we sat in the sun on a wall overlooking the city, drinking beers and chatting for most of the afternoon. That night we all went out for dinner to the "local", a great little trattoria called "La Tana" (The Lair), where we had some delish pasta and red wine. When we got back home, we sat around polishing off more red, along with some grappa, which, if you have never had it, is a lethal, grape-based spirit that is designed to remove paint or make you very drunk, or both.
Needless to say, we woke up the next day feeling a bit worse for wear, so we decided a swim was in order. We got a bus about 10km north of town, to Miramare Castle, a lovely white castle set right on the ocean, in front of a marine park that was brimming with fish (no pun intended). After looking through the interior of the castle and around the grounds, we walked a few hundred metres away, where all the lads stripped off into our cozzies and had a swim. The water was lovely, warm and crystal clear, and definitely cleared a few cobwebs.
After so much exercise, we were all starving, so we got the bus back to Trieste and stopped in for lunch at a little café. Marnie ordered the local specialty, gnocchi with a whole plum wrapped inside. It was a little unusual, tasting more like a pastry than a pasta dish, but it disappeared quickly none-the-less.
In the evening, we trekked out to the local stadium to watch the mighty Triestina take on Albino Leffe in the Serie B, to which Mr Persi had kindly arranged tickets for us. Triestina, after a good start to the season, were resting some key players for the visit of Leffe, who were not very fancied. This gamble proved to backfire, with Leffe running out 2-1 victors. It was a great experience though, to see the passion of the few thousand Triestina supporters who turned up, along with the three (yes three) members of the "Albino Leffe Ultras" who bothered traveling for the game, equipped with loudspeaker and all. The best supporter was the Triestina fan two rows in front, about 65-70 years old, who spent most of the match on his feet swearing and shouting at his side's poor showing, yet couldn't summon up the energy to even clap when his team equalized early in the second half. Classic.
The next morning, with Ian off to Sweden for a few days, we bid our farewells, went to collect Big Green and headed for Venice.
