Treiste some more
After drafting my last post from Zoe Market cafe, I was struck with the urge to see what the Trieste coastline had to offer further south. I walked to the port area, and discovered it's not really a place for wandering.. big highways and industrial buildings. Nonetheless, even the warehouses and apartment blocks were fairly aesthetically pleasing, and at one point a long park runs parallel to the coast, almost like an apology. GPS trace of the walk here.
I did make it to Pedocin beach eventually though. It took a while to find.. I walked around the pier, which felt quite dead, and found the lighthouse. But industrial buildings in every direction seemed to be preventing me from accessing the coast.. though as I walked past one large wall, I could hear children, so I persisted. Eventually I found the entrance, through an unassuming concrete cabin. I think the entry fee is 1 Euro, but there was no-one there to take it. The cabin has two exits, on the left for women and the right for men. A wall divides the beach in two. The beach is pebbles, with immediate access to the sea; small and peaceful, with one vendor selling drinks and snacks. I napped until I was woken by the tide lapping at my feet.
Super pretty white and purple barrel jellyfish fill the bay around here, and Pedocin was no exception. It was only 20 minutes to follow the coast around back into town. More photos here.
In the evening I ate cake from Giardina Tergesteo and pizza (oops) from DNapoli. I had to add the remaining half of a Marinara to the pizza I had already accumulated from Le Agavi the day before.
The next day we picked up gelato and took that and the pizza backlog to Molo Audace, a long concrete pier off Piazza Unita, for a picnic. Later in the evening I walked by myself to ErbOsteria, a charming vegetarian restaurant which uses aromatic herbs for all dishes. I was the only one there for most of the evening, and was treated to a three-course vegan meal with homemade iced tea. It was a wonderful change from the white-flour-and-tomato based meals I've been eating most of the week; high quality ingrediants, freshly crafted, and I was ready to pay gourmet prices. There was no written menu as it changes daily, so I had no idea what to expect to pay.. and three courses plus tea plus an extra dessert to take back for Kit came to 13.50EUR! Unbelievable. My phone was dead so I only managed to take crappy pictures of the food with my laptop webcam. I'll spare you. The starter was fresh courgette, thinly sliced and raw, dressed with lemon and mint. The main was gnocchi (boiled potato dumplings) with asparagus sauce (I heard the blender go, so I think the asparagus was freshly sauce-d for me) sprinkled with almonds. Followed by cake with balsamic herbs. I took a slice of stunning strawberry tart back for Kit, as I don't like strawberries but it looked far too good to go to not be appreciated by someone. He'd eaten it before I remembered to take a photo.
As of this morning, I relocated from Trieste center to a hostel up the coast, near to Miramare. It is directly on the seafront.. this is the view from the balcony, where I'm typing right now. Soon I will be bored of typing, and will go down to enjoy the last few hours of sun from that concrete beach I told you about in my last post, and hopefully find some granita.
