11 days, from Friday, June 10 to Monday, June 20, 2022
A thorough exploration of Italy’s most enigmatic city, a picturesque seaport overlooking the blue Adriatic from a narrow Italian ‘panhandle’ almost entirely surrounded by Slovenian territory. The city is inhabited by a cosmopolitan mix of Italians, Croatians and other Slavs, Greeks, etc., and features imposing architecture that conjures up Vienna and the Habsburg Empire of which it used to serve as ‘window on the Mediterranean’. Our local tours and visits will be complemented by excursions into Slovenia, with the superb Alpine scenery of Lake Bled and a charming capital, Ljubljana; Croatia’s wonderful Istrian Peninsula, featuring an impressive Roman amphitheatre, palaeo-Christian churches and superb coastal resorts such as Rovinj; and, within Italy’s borders, the ruins of the Roman city of Aquileia, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the city of Udine, capital of Friuli Province, and some of the WW I memorials near Gorizia and Kobarid (Caporetto). Accommodation in a centrally-located first-class hotel, fine Italian food with an Austrian touch (!), and talks on the history of the region by your tour escort, historian Jacques Pauwels, PhD, author of books such as ‘Beneath the Dust of Time: A History of the Names of Peoples and Places’ (London, 2009).
June 10 - 20, 2022
Land only: $3,205. Single supplement:$695
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*If the tour is SOLD OUT, please contact us to be added to the waitlist.
Evening departure on Air Canada’s non-stop flight from Toronto to Venice. Dinner and a light breakfast will be served on board.
Arrival at Venice Airport and transfer to the city of Trieste (150 km), located along the Adriatic coast on a coastal strip of Italian land surrounded by Slovenian territory, a limestone plateau known in Italian as the Carso, and also very close to the border with Croatia. Trieste used to be a major “centre of literature, music, art, and culture” when, until the end of WW I, it was part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire; today, the city is a delightful and fascinating fusion of Italian and Eastern European architecture and atmosphere, and a magnificent window on the Adriatic Sea. Check into the centrally-located first-class/4-star Hotel Victoria, a “literary hotel,” housed in a historic building in which the famous Irish writer, James Joyce, used to live for some time. (On Tripadvisor, the Victoria is ranked #3 out of 57 hotels in Trieste.) Free time to get some rest after your overnight flight. In late afternoon, introductory walk to Trieste’s wonderful waterfront and majestic main square, Piazza Unita d’Italia, Europe's largest sea-front square. Welcome drink, perhaps one of the local favourites, such as Campari Soda and Aperol Spritz, followed by dinner in a typical restaurant near the hotel.
Morning sightseeing tour of Trieste, with focus on the two oldest parts of the city. We start with the scenic Civitavecchia or “old town,” dating back to the Roman era, when this city was called Tergeste, a pedestrian maze of narrow and crooked streets with medieval houses, interesting shops, and attractive bars and restaurants in addition to Roman ruins such as the Roman Theatre and a monumental gate known as the Arco di Riccardo. On to San Giusto Hill, the site where the city originated and where the Roman forum used to be, to visit the Cathedral and enjoy sights such as the castle, the World War I Memorial, the ruins of the Roman propylaea and a basilica, and splendid panoramas of the city, the harbor, and the Adriatic Sea. At the end of our tour, you may want to have lunch in the historical Viennese-style Caffè San Marco, once a favourite of the many literary personalities who spent time in this multicultural city with a great literary tradition, for example James Joyce, who arrived here in 1904 to teach English. As the afternoon is free, an attractive option would be to visit the local Joyce Museum (www.museojoycetrieste.it; for more on Joyce in Trieste, see www.museojoycetrieste.it/english/the-trieste-of-james-joyce). Dinner in a typical restaurant.
Morning excursion to the archaeological site of Aquileia, terminus of Antiquity’s Amber Road, linking the Adriatic, and the Mediterranean Sea in general, to the Baltic Sea, one of the largest and wealthiest cities of the Roman Empire and a major centre of early Christianity, associated with saints such Jerome and Ambrose; the city was destroyed by Attila in the 5th century. This UNESCO World Heritage Site (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/825) includes one of Italy’s most remarkable early Christian monuments, an ancient Basilica featuring the world’s largest antique mosaic pavement, as well as the fascinating remains of the Roman Forum and the ancient harbor. We also visit the fine local Archaeological Museum. On the way back to Trieste, we visit Miramare Castle, a seaside chateau and park that used to be the residence of Habsburg crown prince Maximilian, and view more of the city’s outlying places of interest, such as the Faro della Vittoria (“Victory Lighthouse”), a Memorial to WW I, during which the acquisition of this city, still part of the Habsburg Empire, was one of Italy’s major war aims.
Morning visit to the Winckelmann Museum of Antiquities, full of ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman as well as medieval jewelry and other artefacts, and also featuring a lovely garden (http://museoantichitawinckelmann.it). On to Trieste’s colourful market hall, the Mercato Coperto, where vendors sell flowers, fruits, vegetables, fish, meat, and cheese, but also clothing, antiques, books, etc. You may want to stay here for lunch! The afternoon is free to shop, explore on your won, and/or visit yet another museum, perhaps the Railway Museum, displaying models and full-sized train engines and cars as well as old-fashioned horse-drawn trams, or the excellent Naval Museum (https://museodelmaretrieste.it). We also recommend a mid-afternoon break in one of the many fine pastry shops, such as Caffè Pasticceria Pirona, founded in 1900 (https://pirona1900.com), and Caffè degli Specchi on Piazza Unità d'Italia (http://www.caffespecchi.it), which offer delicious local varieties of famous Austrian cakes such as Sacher torte and strudel. Do your prefer ice cream? If so, try the fabulous gelato at Gelateria Zampolli (https://www.gelateriazampolli.com)! If there is sufficient interest, an optional half-day visit may be organized to the town of Lipica, just cross the border in Slovenia, for a visit to the original stud farm of the horses of the world-famous Viennese Spanish Riding School, known as "The Lipizzaner” (https://www.slovenia.info/en/places-to-go/attractions/lipica)!
Full-day excursion into the nearby Italian province of Friuli. We first visit the region’s attractive capital, Udine, whose architecture reflects the many centuries when the city was ruled by Venice; the major sights are Piazza Liberta, reminiscent of St. Mark’s Square in Venice, with its Loggia del Lionello, Clock Tower, statues, and fountains, and the Cathedral, whose interior boasts paintings by Tiepolo. On to the ‘killing fields’ where Italian and Austrian troops fought major battles during WW I, for sightseeing on both sides of the Italian-Slovenian border, in the area of the towns of Kobarid (Caporetto) and Gorizia. Return to Trieste in late afternoon. Today, group lunch in Gorizia OR dinner in Trieste.
Full-day tour of the nearby scenic Pula Peninsula, jutting out into the Adriatic Sea, part of Italy between the two World Wars but now belonging mostly to Croatia, featuring magnificent scenery along the coast as well as in the interior. The highlights will be the ancient Greco-Roman town of Pula with its impressive, well-preserved Roman amphitheatre, the picturesque seaport of Rovinj, where we will enjoy a lunch of Croatian specialties, and Porec, home to another UNESCO World Heritage Site, the 6th-century Euphrasian Basilica complex with its Byzantine mosaics. Today, group lunch in Croatia.
After breakfast, short transfer to Venice Airport and non-stop return flight to Toronto with Air Canada.
- Return non-stop flight from Toronto to Venice, with Air Canada, including all airport taxes/security fees; - Accommodation in the centrally located four-star/first-class Hotel Victoria, based on double occupancy - the supplement for single use of a double room is $695; - Airport transfers and excursions as shown in the itinerary, by private coach; Meals: buffet breakfast daily and a total of four full-course dinners or lunches; - Sightseeing and visits as shown in the itinerary, including admissions; - Gratuities for local guide(s); - Hotel taxes and gratuities; - Airport lounge pass for air-inclusive booking made more than 90 days prior to departure.
• All expenses of a personal nature; • Meals other than those shown above, and wine/beer/coffee etc., with dinners; • Travel Insurance, available on an individual basis. Please call our office for rates.
Jan Morris, Trieste And the Meaning of Nowhere - Christian Jennings, Flashpoint Trieste: The First Battle of the Cold War - Bojan Dimitrijevic, The Trieste Crisis 1953: The First Cold War Confrontation in Europe - Elsa M. Spencer, Good-bye, Trieste - John McCourt, The Years of Bloom: James Joyce in Trieste, 1904-1920 - Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
See also: “Why Trieste will be Italy’s next big destination,” https://www.lonelyplanet.com/articles/trieste-what-to-do?fbclid=IwAR1i7rsBrBP1UOmI404WoKkts68GOyQjzBlDs8lVHBilAzfrbW_iBVSjimg
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