Charon

Breakwater and buoy

A breakwater and a navigational buoy in Muggia Gulf.

Virgilio Giotti

One of my favourite statues, out of the many dotted around the public garden, is this one of Virgilio Giotti (1885 -1957), the greatest poet in Triestinian dialect. The themes prevailing in his marvellous poetry are landscapes, his family, time and death, and they are beautifully rendered thanks to the musical soul he finds in the Triestinian dialect.

"La strada"

Vardo 'na strada de la mia zità,
cha ghe sarò passado mile volte,
e no' me par de averla vista mai.
Le fazzade zalete, le boteghe,
un bar, dei àuti, e el fiatin de viavai.
Come la nostra vita, sì: vissuda,
finida ormai, e mai ben conossuda


"The Street"

I look along a street in my city,
one I must have passed a thousand times,
and I feel as if I've never seen it before.
The yellow facades, the shops
a bar, a few cars, and a quiet bustling.
Like our lives, indeed: lived,
almost over now, but never really known.

Pond

The "Muzio de Tommasini" public garden

The public garden, which features in the Triestinian writer Italo Svevo's novel Zeno's conscience, was built between 1854-1864.
At the top end there is a cafè and a gazebo for concerts, and at the other end there are sculptures erected in honour of its illustrious citizens in the field of culture. It is a little green oasis in the centre of town, where children frolick in a playground watched over by loving parents and the elderly sit and chat or wander leisurely along the meandering paths.
This charming little lake lies in the middle of the garden.

Today's cityscape

Hilda, from My Manila gave me the idea of posting a photo of the same view painted by Butti. The painting looks as if it were painted from the top of a mast or even higher. I took the picture in 2003 from a boat so you can't see the hills behind the city.
The colours, as you can imagine, have been tinted with Photoshop to keep them similar to the ones used by the painter.
The cityscape is pretty much the same, the castle is there of course, but all those beautiful boats are missing. Today, luckily, all the far less beautiful oil tankers and container ships travel along different routes, thus bypassing the mirror of sea reflecting the historic city centre, which is now home to leisure boats, a few ferries and the occasional cruise liner.
As for the invisible hills behind the city, well they've all been built up now - a shame, but inevitable I suppose.

Butti's Trieste

Lorenzo Butti (Trieste 1805-1860)
"Navi nel Golfo di Trieste"
Oil on canvas

Ships, sailing boats, steamers and fishing boats in the gulf of foregone times.
I took this picture of Butti's painting during my last visit to the Museo Revoltella, during an exhibition held of maritime scenes of Trieste and Venice.

Skywach Friday post

A cumulus cloud for today's skywatch.

See more Skywatch here.

Long shadows

The flagpoles and respective flags cast a shadow over the Prefecture's headquarters in Piazza Unità, the town's main square.

Theremin

A musician with his home-made theremin performing in Piazza Sant'Antonio Nuovo.

If you'd like to hear the peculiar sound the theremin makes, here's a link to the virtuoso Pamelia Kurstin. She performs and discusses her theremin, the not-just-for-sci-fi electronic instrument that is played without being touched !

Palazzo Georgiadis

After a lengthy period of restoration, here you can finally see the impressive Teodoro Georgiadis palazzo, photographed from the Scala dei Giganti. Built in 1918, this Austro-Hungarian building overlooks piazza Carlo Goldoni and has been enhanced by this new nighttime illumination... I thought cities were supposed to be trying to save energy...!

Scala dei giganti

This winding staircase is part of a monumental flight of steps leading up to Colle di San Giusto (Saint Just Hill) from Piazza Goldoni (Goldoni Square). It's a tough climb up, but the view over the city is a worthy reward at the end of it.

Day of the dead

Prosecco.

Austro-Hungarian Military Cemetery (Osterreichischer Ungarischer Militar - Freidof)

Today is All Souls' Day, also known as the Day of the Dead, an official holiday on the Catholic calendar, held on November 2 each year. A day when families gather in the cemeteries to visit their beloved departed.

Theme day: Books

Umberto Saba's antique books shop, now run by his associate's grandson.

Umberto Saba was born in Trieste on March 9, 1883 from a Jewish mother and a Christian father.During the writing years of Saba, Trieste is part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Three languages are spoken in town: German, the chiefly spoken local dialect, and Italian which is part of a high literary tradition. Saba uses the latter in his simple and original poetry which does not follow contemporary preferences.In 1919 Saba buys and keeps the antique bookstore in Via San Nicolò. He dedicates his life to poetry and his bookshop.
Saba writes simple and clear poetry, uses everyday words and describes aspects of everyday life. Trieste, his birthplace, is the main protagonist of his poetry: the sea which stands for flight and spiritual adventures; love and sentiment for persons and family and the relationship with nature. Saba deeply loves what he is writing about. For Saba fame and praise arrive after the World War; today he is considered one of the most important Italian poets of the 19th century. The poet dies in 1957 in San Giusto Hospital in Gorizia.

This is the most famous verse, which all Triestinians know (or should know) by heart:

Trieste has a rude
grace. If you like it
it's like a bigboned youth, uncouth and voracious
with blue eyes and hands too large
for giving flowers
like a jealous love

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Skywatch Friday post

There was a completely different feel to Molo Audace yesterday morning compared to the relaxed atmosphere photographed there a couple of weeks ago (see 11 October) .
A strong southwest wind (libeccio) raged across the gulf. The sea was swelling up and the high tide whooshed the water right up over the wharf.
The early morning black clouds were rapidly crowding together, looming over the sleepy town.

See more Skywatch here.

Botazzo

Botazzo is a tiny little hamlet nestled in the depths of Val Rosandra, right on the border with Slovenia, which you can see behind it.
After an hour's trek from the nearest road, you can quench your thirst with a glass of good Terrano red wine and treat yourself to some gnocchi and goulasch in the little trattoria there.

Giovannin

This statue of a putto is part of a fountain (1753 – Mazzoleni) situated in piazza Ponterosso. The putto is familiarly known as Giovannin de Ponterosso (Little John), as the water in the fountain comes from the San Giovanni (Saint John) district.

The flower, fruit and vegetable market sellers to this day still fondly adorn it with fresh flowers each year on June 24th, Saint John's day.
It was shrouded in black mourning veils on the day of Umberto I of Savoy's assassination, which took place in Monza on July 29th 1900.

Spaghetti junction

The project for linking the port to the motorway is known as the "Great Triestine Road Network".
In 1988 the first stretch was opened to traffic. In a few days' time, to the joy of the environmentalists who have for years protested against any further destruction, the project will be completed.
The spaghetti junction in this photo shows just a small part of the humongous road works it has involved: bridges, link roads and tunnels have all completely destroyed our green suburbs; indeed this mass of asphalt has replaced what was, till 18 months ago, a beautiful little country road. There are just a few finishing touches to be made before the interminable traffic of articulated lorries can finally begin.
Down with nature! Long live (unrestrainable) progress!

Living statues

In front of Piazza Unità.
The Tuareg I posted yesterday looked real but was made of cardboard, these men are real (trust me even if you can't see them close enough) but to me they look like living statues.
Well, there is one statue actually: the one holding the flag.

Tuareg

It's not every day that you come across a Tuareg in full costume wandering across Piazza Sant'Antonio... and indeed, if you look closely enough, you'll understand why...

A flower to Sofia !!

A crocus to the Sofia Daily Photo Blogger who honored me with this nice Friends award!
Thank you!


Now is my pleasure to give this award to 5 other bloggers of my choice:

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And... is your turn to give the award to five other bloggers according to following rules:
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Skywatch Friday Post

See more Skywatch here.

Come by and buy

As yesterday's quotation was very challenging, for today we have rather more prosaic words: a no-nonsense but fun marketing policy written in big letters on the shop window of a fishmonger's

Mantis shrimps from the Gulf
Chubby - Outsized
Little mackerel - sardines
Local white-meat
Leg of swordfish
Suckling Monkfish - Dalmatian John Dory

Museo Revoltella - part3

An installation in the museum entrance hall. A rectangular fountain, and a small spiral staircase that recalls the helical flight of stairs in the adjoining eighteenth century palazzo. On the wall you can read a gigantic quotation from Plato's Phaedo. The installation was designed by Gerhard Merz in 1990.
(part1)(part2)

Museo Revoltella - part 2

The flight of steps and a marble statue inside the palazzo of the Baron.
(part1)

Museo Revoltella

Via Diaz, The Revoltella Museum.
Yesterday I visited two temporary exibitions hosted in the Museum and took some pictures, of course. So tomorrow I'll show you the inside of the building.
As there were some road works going on outside the building I couldn't take the picture I wanted to, so here is a ... painting from wikipedia.

The Revoltella Museum was opened in 1872 in the palazzo belonging to Baron Revoltella (1795 - 1869).

Thanks to the frequent purchases and substantial donations made to the museum from the early years, the collection soon outgrew the exhibition space available, and the Municipality of Trieste decided to purchase the two buildings contiguous to the Baron’s 18th century residence, Palazzo Brunner and Palazzo Basevi.
In 1963 Carlo Scarpa was commissioned a project to extend and refurbish the three buildings. The works took a long time and only after several years and a few partial openings, was the museum completed and inaugurated in 1993.

Towards Utopia

Enter the Via Carducci photobooth and find your Shangri-La

Teatro Politeama Rossetti

The theatre (seats 1531).
The building was designed by Nicolò Bruno in 1878. As the theatre is in an unusual position, nestled on the hillside, Bruno designed the main facade (with its entrance going straight into the foyer) up the steep slope you can see on the right; however the main entrance to the theatre is actually off the avenue to the left and so the foyer is on the first floor from the avenue entrance and on the ground floor from the hill entrance where the columns are.

Skywatch Friday Post:

Bad weather looms overhead!
(Have a look at the size of the boats, to see exactly how much bad weather is on its way!)

See more Skywatch here.

Icing

Piazza Cornelia Romana
I like the little old lady gazing out from her iced cake of a home, as she tends her rosemary plant.

Prodotti stagionali

Covered market in Via Carducci.

I'll try to take the lady's advice written on the green notice "you get flavour and save money by consuming seasonal produce", and not be tempted ....... by strawberries in the snow.

Knock knock

A tiny little door in the old town. A fountain and nobody around. Now the hordes have left after the Barcolana, the town has settled back into its familiar peaceful atmosphere.

Barcolana 2008

There was no wind and an annoying haze in the Gulf yesterday, so for most people watching the regatta from the uplands it must have been a dead bore.
I've posted a photo very similar to the one on Monday the 6th just to emphasize how different the atmosphere was.

Dona sangue

Dozens of market stands, hundreds of glittering boats, thousands of people, shipowners, skippers, helmsmen and Triestinians passing by and very little room for solidarity.
In among the thousands of busy banners, flags and banderoles, the message calling for blood donors (dona sangue) appears to have just the one balloon in its audience, a balloon that looks like it's its own white cut-out.

Molo Audace

If you visit Trieste you should take a walk on the Molo Audace (jetty), which takes its name from the first Italian ship anchored there on November 3 1918.

From here you can see Trieste as if you were on a boat but you can also simply gaze into the horizon while the sun is setting, talking with your closest friends.

Bragozzo - it's not competitive but it cuts a fine figure

The Bragozzo was the most commonly used fishing vessel between the 18th and 19th century, both along the coastline and out at sea. It dates much further back than that, and originally came from Chioggia (near Venice), before becoming widespread all along the coast of the Veneto region and throughout the Adriatic Sea.

Pairs

While I was out walking to see the sailing boats that are coming for the Sunday regatta, I spotted this pair and took the picture. When I then looked at the photo, I realized that everything is in pairs in this picture!

Waiting for the Barcolana 2008

I don't think he will be ready by the 12 of October!

Waiting for the Barcolana 08

In the background "la Lanterna" the old but still working lighthouse in the harbour.

Waiting for the Barcolana 08

Yesterday afternoon in the Gulf of Trieste.

For 40 years the Barcolana has been the regatta for everyone. From huge sailing yachts to small boats, from professional yachtsmen and women to the passionate amateur, the regatta is a celebration of the sea and full of competitive spirit. Some of those taking part in the race sail boats which boast the latest marine technology, with ever-larger sails to overcome Trieste’s dead calm and canting keels to fight against the Bora, Trieste’s famous wind. The race will take place for the 40th time this year on 12 October with many events on land and at sea aiming to involve the entire city, guests, competitors and many tourists during a week totally dedicated to sailing, both for young and professional sailors, great champions and beginners.(taken from www.barcolana.it).

Alabarda

The Alabarda, the Municipal coat of arms, is perhaps not recognizable in this arty photo.
Here's a link to the official one for anyone who happens to be interested.

Sniffing petrol

Seafront of Barcola

Stazione Rogers

...they were running to the opening of the ex Rogers station (from the name of the Italian architect Ernesto Nathan Rogers), a building which is going to become a center for cultural activities.

It's a small building, a former petrol station of the Aquila company, considered a small gem of contemporary Italian architecture.

The project dates back to the 50s and was designed by the famous Milan studio BBPR, whose members included the Triestine architect Ernesto Nathan Rogers, considered one of the founders of Italian contemporary architecture.

Breaking news

The State Secretary for Relations with the Prime Minister's Office (tie on the left) was seen yesterday walking in Trieste hand in hand with our Mayor Roberto Di Piazza (tie on the right). What were they doing? Where were they going?.... more news tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Where are we?!

We are not in Trafalgar Square but in Piazza Unità. The main big square surrounded by beautiful buildings, and overlooking the sea. You don't sea much of it from this picture but we will discover it's treasures one by one in the near future, hopefully.

Main entrance to the city

Natural tunnel just before entering the city. If you look up as you drive through, you see Dante's profile jutting out from the rock. The locals all honk three times as they drive through for good luck.