02-Dec-2023
Having spent a pleasant couple of days vaguely picking away at James Joyce connections, we returned to the fray yesterday and today (aided and abetted by this handy leaflet).
First up, another statue, this time in the Muzio de' Tommasini park:
He shares the gardens with many other notables and some wonderful trees:
Next was the Caffe Stella Polare -- to visit this time, not just look:
Kranz, a pastry of Austrian origin, still well loved in Trieste
On again, duly fortified:
The erstwhile Berlitz School, where Joyce worked for a while
Taking in the Roman amphitheatre on our way to the next Joyce connection...
... which was the San Nicolo Greek Orthodox church, whose services he attended
Teatro Verdi. Joyce had a very good voice, and apparently tried to become a professional opera singer while staying in Trieste
On the way to the heights
Via Donato Bramante 4, second-floor flat, which is where Joyce lived from September 1912 to June 1915... Here he wrote Giacomo Joyce, finished A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, started work on the play Exiles and the novel Ulysses, and succeeded in having Dubliners published
There are lots of nearby associations. This is the entrance to Basevi Gardens
So that all made for a pleasant walk. It was greyish yesterday, and a little spitty, and the cloud was down on the hills that guard Trieste's back. But it was markedly less wet than the previous day, which had been WET with a vengeance.
Today was more of the same. Looming cloud. Slopping water. But little actual precipitation:
This is the old railway station. Normally a museum, but currently undergoing renovation
The view from another little garden, the Passeggio Sant'Andrea
The final bit of our Joyce trail took us to Pirona, the pastry shop where our man reportedly breakfasted every day on red wine and presnitz. Presnitz? It's a delicious pastry roll stuffed with nuts and dried fruit. Which, of course, we had to try.
Yum...
Tonight is our final evening, and we went out to take a look at the city at night. We'd heard there was a San Nicolo fair, but we couldn't find it... Never mind. It was still a pleasant, light-filled stroll. Even in winter, Triestini throng the pavement cafes, and the atmosphere was lively but relaxed:
Moving on tomorrow.
We've barely scratched the surface in Trieste. There's just SO much more we could have done, and I really hope there'll be an opportunity to return. For cultural richness, natural beauty, and laid-back charm, this city will be very hard to beat.