One of the best things about Trieste is the food. It’s not typically Italian, but a delicious mix of Italian, Germanic and Slavic tradition. The culinary scene in this city, perched on a hill overlooking the Adriatic ocean, is as varied and colourful as it’s past.
The 84-year old, shrinking signora hunches over as she sets our frothy cappucini down on the Formica table. She was born in the back of this latteria, or milk store, and took over the family business years ago. It’s small, and empty, save for the refrigerated milk and Coke bottles, and a few pastries behind a glass counter.
In Italy, there are no Easter egg hunts, no marshmallow Peeps, and definitely no jelly beans. Instead, there are chocolate eggs…massive, elaborately decorated, beautifully wrapped chocolate eggs. Throughout Italy, in small towns, and big cities, shop windows are filled with brightly colored chocolate Easter eggs, which stand tall on small plastic cups placed inside their wrappers.
Between the rolling hills of Tuscany, the architectural wonders of Rome, and the sun-soaked beaches of Sicily; Italy remains a favourite destination for tourists, history buffs and fashionistas alike. And now Italophiles the world over can experience more of Italy’s picturesque landscape and buzzing cities for less.
“It’s the pimple of the North,” says the Italian man standing next to me on a crowded bus as it pulls away from Ferroviaria train station to make its way past the city centre and begin the steep climb up San Giusto hill. The roads are tight and windy as the sardine-packed bus edges its way deeper into the city, scrapping past rugged buildings and pedestrians who foolishly thought they’d be safe on the sidewalk.
Edgar Alan Poe called it the “imp of the perverse”, that little voice in your head that grabs you as you stand on a cliff edge or on a train platform that sometimes says, “Jump”. My imp is talking to me as I stand peering at the sea from my eighth-floor balcony onboard Holland America’s MS Noordam.
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