Somewhere my husband (previously known as ‘The Other Half’) has wanted to go for a while but it didn’t really float my boat, for absolutely no reason at all. However, after deciding to take a drive over to Croatia from Italy for a mini break, Trieste was a good place to stop on the way because it was only an hour away from the Istrian coast of Croatia by car.

I already knew it was going to be a good trip, when I spotted the sign for Prosecco en route to Trieste, sadly we didn’t have time to stop there, but have added it to the bucket list of places to visit by car.

Trieste, so I discovered, is steeped in history.  A melting pot of inhabitants, once an independent state, bordering Slovenia and Germany. It has had 6 flags in 36 years and is currently Italian!  

We decided to Airbnb this one. Searched through the various booking websites and came upon 9b The Apartment.  The husband, being a water baby, wanted to be near the port so that’s where we based ourselves for our 24 hour stopover. We later discovered that there is also a beautiful resort/accommodation owned by the same people in Slovenia: 9b The Resort

The apartment was clean, nicely decorated, with everything in it you would need for a short stay. Although things like the air conditioning were obviously very old; I actually thought it was a trendy new cream colour until the husband pointed out that it was so old it was actually faded white; it still worked very well. With easy and contactless check in and out and free parking included it couldn’t have been more convenient for us. Especially when parking in a city can be both stressful and expensive. My only tip if you do stay here is if you have a lot of luggage stop at the apartment first and leave the luggage there, as the free parking garage was a short walk away. Not really a problem more an inconvenience if you have a lot of bags to drag with you, which we did!

I didn’t realise just how lovely Trieste would be. I had always imagined it as quite an industrial part of Italy. But despite the very obvious cruise ships in the port, it really was a lovely city, and we only touched the surface of it.  We covered the port area mainly with a slow drive down the steep roads and the rest of our time there on foot.   

First stop was to find somewhere for an aperitivo. The combination of different nationalities and cultures was obvious in both the cuisine and the languages spoken. A combination of Italian and east European food, we had a beautiful dinner in a very popular side street recommended by our host. Via De Turino was obviously a favourite hang out for both locals and tourists. We chose the restaurant Puro, with its huge wine selection and a variety of menu choice. It also had a lovely gin & tonic bar attached but we were so hungry we went straight for the food.  We went Italian for starters and international for main. Simply delicious.

We only wanted to have a short visit here so we chose to do a Viator self guided tour (by walkingcap) to try to see the best of the city in a short space of time. This worked well and took us past shops and coffee shops and restaurants, so we could dip in and out of the audio on our phones. The guide was slighty Beavis & Butthead like, but the route and info made it bearable! 

We walked up and down, visited the old and the new, sadly the promenade at the end of the tour was blocked off due to building/roadworks, but I would recommend a walk there when it re opens.  There’s also a lot of street art scattered around the city which we didn’t have time to discover but it gives us another reason to go back.  I’d highly recommend Trieste for a weekend break with a great combination of food, art, culture and history.  Just try not to go there when the ships are in!!  This one gave me palpitations it was so huge!