Of castles, duomo and horses

Firstly I have to say that I’m index fingering this email sitting on the balcony in the glorious sun in my bathers. I’ve been for my early morning swim and am now just relaxing. Just couldn’t resists a bit of a boast!!

Now….Yesterday was another nice day setting off up to the Trieste Castle and Duomo on the hill behind Trieste. It was a lovely surprise. It is the site of the Roman settlement of Trieste. The Duomo dates back to the 13th century and has some really lovely mosaics. I’ve missed my mosaic hunts (looking forward to Sicily for another burst of Mosaics). Then we went up to the castle. I’m totally castled out but the view of Trieste was rather splendid.

Then Chris had been recommended a fantastic seafood restaurant beneath the castle were we retreated to for a mussel soup and a seafood lasagne (shared)!! We then headed off to Lipica to see the Lipizzaner horse stud. These are the same horses as the Viennese ones. We had to be there at 3 to see the show that they put on 3 times a week. It was fabulous, the horses are just wonderful as are their riders. Then we did a tour of the stud and saw the horses both in the fields and in their stables. It was really fantastic. The Slovenians are so proud of their beautiful horses.

All good, did our super marketing, and home for a quite night. Not to be. The owners of the house we are staying in also have the house next door that they use as their beach shack. They are very wealthy and bought the house next door that we are using so they couldn’t be overlooked. They are friends of a friend of Chris’. He is the top lawyer in Trieste. Anyway they had told us they were having a party and to pop over. No way was I going, no way at all and Chris had decided not to go also. So we’re quietly sitting outside, listening to the party noise. They were having a great time, singing, laughing etc. Then they started singing When the Saints Go Marching In….in English! Then they started calling out ‘Where is Australia?’. The next thing we knew he literally rose up in front of us like a tall lanky spook!! Long and short of it is that we ended up part of the party, eating cake and drinking wine. They were delightful people so it was nice. We didn’t stay too long!

A bit of fun!! Today we are having an at home day. The sun is pouring down after a few days of cloud and rain so it will be nice to sit in the sun and to go for a few swims.

And to the Tongan drew, Trieste would be a fabulous port to inhabit!!