Da Trieste

 Here are a few photos from Trieste.

 Rob booked a great hotel room which over looked the harbour.

On our last morning we woke up to this:

an enormous ship from the Costa fleet.  It was so close.

 Trieste's main piazza fronts on to the sea.  Piazza Unità d'Italia is enormous and is supposed to be the biggest piazza in Europe.  The piazza in front of the St Peters looks bigger to me but I'm sure that there would have been someone out there checking with their ruler.

Part of Piazza Unità d'Italia looking out towards the sea

Il Canal Grande, Trieste

The reflections on the water were beautiful

Trieste also has a Canale Grand and I read somewhere that it rivals Venezia's Canale Grande -it is about 100 metres long and there is no comparison.

 Better to enjoy places for what they are than to continually make comparisons -I'm over newspaper and other travel reviews. I really don't care what some person writes about a place when they have had free travel and free accommodation. Also tastes are highly individual. We really love Venice and could live there, you may just like it for a day visit.

We walked about 30 kms around Trieste over the few days that we were there and had a good look around. We ate at a great restaurant -Antico Convento in Via delle Beccherie Vecchie, 2,  Trieste  on both nights (it is always tricky to find somewhere really good so we went two nights and tried different things.  It would become a regular if we lived there.

We also had some great gelato, a fantastic pork panino in the Triestina style with mustard and fresh horseradish from Da Siora Rosa.  We had to be careful what we ordered as we are not big on offal and there were delicacies such as tongue impanata.

We also had the obligatory spritz on comfortable chairs overlooking the vast Piazza Unità d'Italia

Another lazy day in Venice

We went to the Accademia gallery  (Gallerie dell'Accademia) yesterday and enjoyed wandering around looking at the fabulous collection. In the afternoon we walked around the St Marco/ Rialto side of the canal and went to a few favourite shops and bars.
We ended up in San Marco around 4.00pm so sat in the warm sunshine at Gran Caffe Quadri and enjoyed the beautiful view.  The light from the setting sun was perfect and the light/shadow contrasts were amazing. A very pleasant break. The photos are a mixture taken with our fuji by Rob, Jules and me.

The antique market in Campo S Barnaba. I really wanted to buy some of the glass lamps hanging on the right but getting them home in one piece is a bit problematic.

Next to Accademia bridge

It was impossible to get this shot without a tourist in the way

From Accademia bridge

From Accademia bridge

This one as well - there is a reason there are always heaps of people on the Accademia bridge, the views are always fantastic

Another one of my favourite spots

Looking in a shop selling beautiful paper and pens

Gondola traffic- tutto era bloccato

Ammonite in Piazza San Marco

and another one

Blue skies and a prime spot at Gran Caffe Quadri

I was busily checking my phone - just for a short while, I did take in my surroundings :)
 Sarah enjoyed just being there -as  you should

The contrast between the light and shadows was stunning

San Marco

Heaps of tourists

It was good to relax in the sun

Sardine tourists all crammed into the one spot -it's good for us because other areas are easy to walk around.

The pink lights are great

Jules took this photo -with much direction, neither of us will ever make it in TV :)