An hour and half after leaving Slovenia we were at the dock in Muggia hoping to check into Italy. Nope, not possible there, so we continued on. A little anticlimactic, but by 12:15 we were side-on at the Marina San Giusto in Trieste. We intended to check in and then go to whatever berth they directed us to, but lucky us, they said we could stay exactly where we were. We paid for two nights and Mike went off in search of customs and immigration, having not obtained a customs and immigration form for Coral in Slovenia. Oops. They made him run around in circles for an hour or so, but he eventually got the situation straightened out.
We went for a walk to check out Trieste, and oh my, it is a beautiful city. The Piazza Unita d’Italia is apparently Europe’s largest square located next to the sea. Three sides of the square have buildings that make you feel more like you’re in Austria than Italy (I’m imagining, I’ve never been to Austria, though Mike visited almost thirty years ago). They were decorating for Christmas, but sadly we didn’t get to see the final result.
These photos are all well and good, but this panoramic shot by someone else gives you a better idea of the glory of the square.
We reckoned we deserved to treat ourselves to dinner in a nice restaurant to celebrate our arrival in Italy, and we liked the look of Puro, so we decided to give it a shot. Oh. My. God. I have never had pasta like that. You always hear so much about how it’s supposed to be al dente, but this melted in your mouth. Mike had tagliatelle with a gorgonzola cream sauce and I had fusilli carbonara. Mine was great, but Mike’s was insanely out of this world. We still talk about it all the time, for real. Sadly I don’t have a photo of Mike’s meal, but here is mine.
Other activities during our time in Trieste included visiting the Roman theatre,
and attending our first opera at Teatro Verdi! Evgenij Onegin is a Russian opera written by Tchaikovsky, based on Alexander Pushkin’s novel in verse. Though I did look up the plot synopsis before the show, I enjoyed it a bit more when I realized there were subtitles above the stage. Our seats were at a level where we couldn’t see them unless we hunched down a bit, so for the first act I was a bit adrift. Impressions: gorgeous venue, impressive singing (for the most part), a shocking number of people onstage, and it was loooong. We hung in there–I am a completist, if nothing else.
High on culture and pasta, we left the next morning to continue our assault on Italy. As soon as we left the marina we spied this weird building on a hill. Looks like it came right out of Logan’s Run.
A Google search of “weird building northwest of Trieste” yielded the answer that it is the Sanctuary Montegrisa, a Roman Catholic church built in the 1960s in celebration of the fact that the Nazis didn’t completely annihilate Trieste during WWII. It’s supposed to look like the letter M, as a symbol of the Holy Mary. Who knew?
Another mile up the coast we pulled into the harbour of Grigano. We were assured that the ferry was no longer in operation at this time of year, so we sidled up to the pier and hopped off for a couple hours to visit the nearby Castello di Miramare. It was built for an Austrian Archduke and his wife, and it is pretty special. The story is that he was a naval officer, the younger brother of the Emperor, and during a storm took refuge in Grignano and vowed to return and build his home there. This he did, but he only got to enjoy it for a couple of years before he was appointed Emperor of Mexico and sailed off to the new world to assume his post. Spoiler alert: it did not end well for him.
Windvane on the ceiling, because as I can attest, sea captains are obsessed with the wind
By 2pm we were ready to head out again and just over an hour later we were anchored in the harbour at Sistiana.
We didn’t venture ashore, just enjoyed the peace and quiet. In the morning we took down the jib and were entertained by the ducks.
Then we headed out for our final leg to Monfalcone. Quite far out from shore, Mike spied a couple of swans. Weird.
As we passed the shipyard we got an eyeful of Danzigergracht, the cargo ship Coral was destined to be loaded on in a few days.
A few minutes later we were at the dock in Hannibal Marina, our home for the next four nights until loading day. Our movie experience in Slovenia was successful enough that we decided to walk the couple of miles into town to catch another movie.
Well. We saw Justice League in Italian and it was painful. I’d like to blame the fact that we couldn’t understand the dialogue, but frankly that probably helped the situation. After the show we walked to a weird local burger joint that was reviewed a little too optimistically on the internet.
We spent the next few days hoofing back and forth to town and getting Coral ready for transport.
There was a cat sanctuary along our walk, so we stopped to talk to the kitties each time, bien sur.
Our other source of entertainment was the cruise ship getting ready to head out. Sounds emanating ranged from pounding metal to the band’s drum tuning.
And with that, loading day arrived–November 27, 2017. Stay tuned for my loading day video! Note that there is no unloading video from West Palm Beach, Florida–the Americans are not nearly as laid back about layman Canadians taking video in their port.
Man, I’m getting weepy all over again thinking about leaving Coral in Italy… bye Mediterranean sailing adventure.