Trieste

To get from Ljubljana to our next destination, Rovinj, on a Saturday was a bit tricky. Part of a train track got damaged in an avalanche awhile back, and other routes only run on weekdays. But I figured out that we could go by way of Trieste, Italy and spend a day in Italy, to boot! We took an early bus to Trieste, then a late bus to Rovinj, paid to keep our bags at the train station, and had the day to wander around.

Trieste is on the Adriatic Sea and has an impressive main square overlooking the harbor.

When wandering behind the main square, we happened on a WWI touch-a-truck sort of thing, with old tanks and machines. This might have actually been the ambulance that Hemingway himself drove very close to this area!

Trieste had some Roman ruins throughout the city that were interesting to see.

Just proximity to the Roman theater made Joseph and ellen start to feel dramatic.

We ate at a pizzaria in Italy! The pizza was delicious! Ben was pretty excited. The pizzaria was called Copacabana, which seems strange. Do Italians admire Brazilian pizza?

And then we had like five more hours to kill, and the day was so hot. Like, probably 95 degrees and very humid. We were wilting. We wandered around a bit more and scoped out some playgrounds, then settled on this really lovely one. There was shade and it neighborhood families left scooters and bikes to ride around on. For awhile the kids played soccer with some nice Italians, but eventually people started getting bored. And there was still a long time before our bus out of town. And then ellen came to the rescue!! She organized an obstacle course through the playground, weaving through the pillars on the bikes and scooters, then up and down slides and around the playground. She timed everyone and made it lots of fun, and I just sat quietly in the shade and felt like a real life miracle was happening. It was so great. And it was the highlight of Trieste!

Finally, we wandered back through the city, got some gelato (of course!) and caught our bus out of town.

A note about using buses and public transportation around Europe with lots of children: not recommended. Driving is also a hassle, but by the time you buy bus tickets for everyone it's not especially cheap, and the waiting and inconvenience inherent in public transportation is a lot more unpleasant with bored kids in dirty bus terminals. BUT we did see an astonishing 5 kilo vat of Nutella for sale in the bus terminal gift shop, an experience we would have missed out on had we not been killing time in the bus terminal!