Travels thru Life: 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).