Trieste Days with a Side of Muggia - Monfalcone to Trieste

​We leave Monfalcone to make the relatively short journey to Trieste to meet my brother, Al and sister-in-law, Diane who arrived there the day before.  Although it is a short day it is the first one in several days that has involved some hills.  We are no longer on the Po delta and the coastal plains!  

After a few hills and a gnarly single track, we are on fast smooth pavement with a long downhill to Trieste.  We stop to take in some views at some of the scenic overlooks.  

At this overlook there is a guy who seems to be sanding a piece of furniture!  Note this is busy road and he is at a scenic overlook!  I walked over closer to him and he explained he lives in an apartment building and can’t do this at home.  Makes sense.  

The rest of the ride continues quickly and we head to the Miramare Castle to meet Al and Diane who have walked out on the pedestrian path from Trieste to meet them.  They arrive minutes after us.  

Over the next couple of days we wander all over the city sightseeing and enjoying some amazing food.  

The main piazza at night 

The San Giusto Church had some really interesting mosaics. The camera did not really capture the sparkle really well. 

Sitting on the big boy chair after some museums and wanderings.  

Some interesting carvings.  These are from over doorways in the city. 

Here is the super yacht seized by the Italian government from a Russian Oligarch.  

And we had some all time favorite seafood meals. Kudos to Al for knowing how to pick the right restaurants. 

On our last day to Trieste, the boys opted to ride the rail trail up into Slovenia, whereas the girls opted for a ferry ride to Muggia for the day.  Forecast was for some periods of rain.  

The boys made it to the top before the rain hit and got a little wet, chilled and muddy on the descent but had a successful ride.   

Diane and my largest challenge was finding refuge from the rain in the lovely seaside town of Muggia. 

The rain was quite heavy for a bit and it was pretty close to lunch time and we stuck our heads in a restaurant and no they weren’t open. We asked if we could just sit inside and have some tea.  They said yes and we were able to avoid the worse of the rain. We also got out some scopa cards and played a couple of hands.  Then had a light lunch there before departing. 

Then we did some more wandering around the town and again the rain started in earnest.  So we stop at a caffè and order some coffee.  We barely finish them and the proprietor tells us they are closing so we are booted out into the rain again. 

So we seek another refuge.  We see a wine bar, yes, this will do.  We step inside and the proprietor says we are closing so out into the streets again. 

We find another bar and they are open.  We order Prosecco and settle in and pull out the scopa cards again and play a couple of hands. Suddenly we are interrupted by a man holding a green bag and he is very  adamantly saying something to us which we cannot understand and handing us the bag.  We stare at him in bafflement. After he repeats himself about four or five times with us staring mutely at him , Diane finally takes the bag and there is a bottle of sparkling wine inside and I finally realize that he is the guy who didn’t let us in the wine bar. Somehow he tracked us down and felt so bad about turning us away felt he needed to make amends by giving us a bottle of wine.  

After we realize who he is, he turns around and speeds out of the bar without giving us time for anything but a quick, grazie!   It was so kind and such an unexpected gesture.  Wow!

Then we get back into our cards and the owner of the bar asks, parli italiano.  I say, un po’ (a bit). He goes to get his younger assistant who speaks some English and he explains to us that in Italy people are not allowed to play cards in public places.  What? Who knew?  He said that they could incur a fine by allowing it!  What!!!  I ask perché? (Why?) the answer is because people gamble sometimes when playing cards!  We quickly put them away and wonder if we had offended the people at the restaurant where we were playing scopa at earlier.  

Feeling a bit delinquent, we make our way to the ferry for the ride back to Trieste.  Despite some minor law breaking, it was a wonderful day.