Travels thru Life: January 2020

Sunday, January 19, 2020

1/9/20 -- The Flights Home

The flight from Venice to Paris that we were worried about went off as scheduled and we moved through the Paris airport with little trouble to get the flight home. It was delayed about 2 hours, but it wasn't a big deal because we were due in at 1:15 and were able to pick our car up by 3:30, in time to collect our mail from the post office.

Now all we need to do is figure out where we are going next.....

1/8/20 -- Last Full Day Here: War Memorial and Wine Tasting

Our primary objective today was the Collio wine region north west of here and near the Slovenian border.

However, on the way was a monumental World War I memorial built by Mussolini to consolidate many smaller cemeteries in the region. The hill opposite the monument was one of the cemeteries that was emptied for the memorial and it is now a memorial part with artifacts from that war. The monument holds more than 100,000 remains, about 60% of whom are unidentified. There were also rock-lined trenches, some with bunker-like tops, on the hill. It is always sobering to see sights like this. Nearby, there was also an Austrian-Hungarian cemetery, where we stopped briefly as well.

The only woman represented here.

Above/below: each level has a wall of names like these.

Above/below: Mostly enclosed bunkers.

The Alps were clearly visible

This cemetery was one of many emptied to fill the monument
on the other side of the road. It is now a memorial.

Just down the road was the Austria/Hungary cemetery.

The rest of the day was a lot more fun. We drove to the Perusini winery, which is a medium-sized family run operation. We got a walk among the tanks and barrels as well as a look at their tower-like office before heading to the house for a light lunch and tastes of 5 different wines. They are large enough that they can export their wines to the US, but the process at least triples the price, so we are bringing 2 bottles home with us. The youngest son came down to sample lunch and it turns out that he is the winemaker, so we had an interesting conversation with him as well as his mother, who was our hostess for the day.

The tower on the property. We actually went into
this section later.

Barrel room under the tower. They mostly use stainless steel tanks
and we walked past a bunch of them on our way here.

This is a swinging ball that I didn't quite
understand the significance of. I took a bunch of
photos trying to get one that wasn't dark, but
when the ball was illuminated, the rest wasn't.

Inside the main room of the tower. The room above is their office.

Artwork representing the entire facility.


Looking back down from where we are to the barrels and swinging ball below.


Since we were so close to the border with Slovenia, we drove there and then came back to Italy. I guess we can add another country to our 'visited' list

After lunch, we headed back to Trieste to pack for the trip home and find out how early we need to get up to catch our 6:25am plane home. Air France is having strike problems and although they are sure their long-haul flights are solid, our first leg is to Paris, so it may be at risk. As of 12 hours before boarding, they are still projecting our plane will fly. I hate to think of the challenge of getting home with all our stuff if something changes!

1/7/20 -- WWII History and Trieste City Tour

We have a couple days in Trieste. We started the first day at an old rice processing factory that was turned into a Nazi concentration and detainment camp during WWII. We probably never heard of it because only thousands of people were killed there instead of millions.

The outside of the factory looks unremarkable.

This shows the layout of the entire facility. There was a crematorium
here, but it was destroyed by the Nazis as the war ended.

This former warehouse was known as the Hall of Crosses. It
originally had three floors, but its not clear if those were in
place while it was used as a camp.

Next, we took a tour though the city to the high point where there are the remains of a Roman Forum, an old church and a WWI memorial.

The central mosaics had an interesting sparkly
aspect to them.

Another version of a unusually adult looking
baby Jesus

Unfortunately, the camera did not capture the sparkle which
made this mosaic so stunning. I especially liked the dark background.

This was the third of the mosaics at the front of the church.

Outside, the Roman ruins were partially rebuilt, but badly.

A WWI memorial

Overlooking Trieste and (below) the harbor

We ended up in the old part of the city, near our ship. While in the old city, we saw a large sign urging the US and UK to come back and learned that in 1947, Trieste had been promised it could become a free state outside of the control of either Italy or Yugoslavia and the US and UK were supposed to facilitate that. Alessandro arranged a meeting with a representative of the group for after lunch. We also got a chance to find some more chocolates before returning for lunch.

The symbol of Trieste

On our way back to the ship, we saw a whole slew of jellyfish

After lunch, we went with Alessandro to a very Viennese looking cafe for coffee. Jim and I had hot chocolate which was almost thick enough to be molten fudge that we thinned out with a glass of whipped cream. TOTALLY yummy, but definitely met all our chocolate needs for the next day or three.

Coffee shop with lots of unused outdoor seating.

The THICK hot chocolate and the cream you
needed to add to make it drinkable. Good thing
we are averaging well over 10,000 steps a day!

Then we visited the political party supporting "The Free Territory of Trieste" and learned the history behind it and the legal battles they are fighting even now to make it happen.

The gentleman on the left explained the Free Trieste history.
The woman was primarily a translator but sometimes answered
questions on her own.

Trieste sunset

Back at the ship there were a few moments of panic when we realized Jim had forgotten our daypack at the Free Trieste meeting, but Alessandro was able to reach them and Jim retrieved it while I listened to another story about the WWII times and after and more inhumanity which does not bear repeating. After dinner, there was a "Beach Boy Band" of crew members. Jim went back to our room to rest/sleep because of his cold, and I went with him fully intending to attend the show, but got caught up in something and missed the whole thing. Too bad! It sounded like fun.

1/6/20 -- Explore Sistiana and Aqualeia

Over night, we cruised to Sistiana, just north of Trieste, primarily to visit a UNESCO basilica in Aqualeia, about 18 miles away. Because today is Epiphany, there is a special service at the Basilica blessing the children, so we adjusted our day and got a tour of a nearby castle to start the day.

We chose to hike about 1.75 miles from the top of the hill along the coast to the Duino Castle. The one we saw was built on the current spot in the 14th century and has been continuously occupied by the same family who originated an extensive mail system and ran it for 350 years. The family still lives in one section of the castle. In 2003, they opened about 18 rooms to the public, and it can be rented for occasions like weddings and other events. From one of the balconies, you can see the ruin of an older castle from the 11th century on the property too.

Our ship in a really dinky harbor

The castle from a distance

Jim on the trail

The castle grown up from the rock

An older castle

While we waited for our tour to start, we visited an exhibit on the grounds of Bruno the dinosaur who was found in Italy a few years ago. Because most of Italy was submerged during the dinosaur era, Bruno is one of the first dinosaurs found in Italy on what used to be an island with a lake. They located about 70% of the skeleton, but excavating it was a major challenge because it was not laying flat -- its long tail curved under itself and twisted a few times. Archeologists have not decided how this occurred, but it made for an interesting display.

The front of Bruno. Anything black (vs gray) is added based on other
fossils from the site. The head is in the lower foreground.

The tail continues on the back and into and back
up the crevice.

One of the highlights in the castle is the staircase -- it looks circular, but is actually ovate which means the inner part of the step is more useful. It was also described as self-supporting, but I would have called it cantilevered -- it is only anchored on the wall side and completely hanging in the middle. Unfortunately, no picture. Based on the photos I thought I took and can't find, I don't think photos were allowed in most of the interior

The family in the 1800s was renown for supporting the arts and people like Rainer Maria Rilke, Franz Lizst, Mark Twain, and Johann Strauss. There was also an extensive collection of violins, primarily from the baroque period, including one that had lots more than the four typical strings.

Inner Courtyard

Tower

Better view of the original castle

After lunch, we headed to Aqualeia, about a 45 minute drive. We stopped at a chocolate and coffee shop for a snack and access to the facilities and found a couple interesting chocolate bars to bring home. There is a big celebration planned for tonight -- the bringer of gifts to children here is a witch and for reasons I couldn't discern, a major event at night is the burning of a huge stack of hay bales with a witch on top. Apparently, as the last day of Christmas, this was a time when people would dismantle their Christmas trees and take them outside to burn them and the bonfire seems to be a stand in for that tradition.

The witch and the bales for the bonfire.

There was a lot of entertainment, food tents, and a sort of a
Renaissance fair.

The church was started in 313 when Constantine declared all religions acceptable and the original was completed in 320. It was significantly enlarged twice and reached is largest size in the 400s. It was completed in it final form with only 80 years of building, a comparatively lightning speed. Now, about half of the church is missing (sort of -- some of the mosaics have been revealed in a room under the tower that replaced the church).