Sunday in Trieste, Trieste, Italy

What better way to spend Sunday than by eating cakes in some of Trieste’s oldest cafes? My best friend M. and I went on a day trip to Trieste, Italy with the sole purpose of enjoying ourselves. There was no fixed agenda apart from our wish to visit several traditional cafes/ patisseries. It’s been a long time since I had fun in Trieste because I usually just use it for flights/ train connections. When I was a child we used to regularly go to Trieste.

Anyway, it was nice to just wander around the city center leisurely and to take in the beautiful architecture of Trieste. Very much like my hometown Trieste has more of a feel of a Central European city than a Mediterranean city. Trieste is an important Italian port and a significant university center (especially for languages) but it’s also the oldest town in Italy by the age of its inhabitants. It’s seen better days and a vivid memorial of that is its grand main square Piazza Unità d’Italia. But there are other beautiful buildings and squares too.

After some walking around the town our first stop was the traditional and yet still very trendy café of Caffè degli Specchi. It was opened in 1839. Since it’s right at the main square (Piazza Unità d’Italia) it’s a wonderful place for some people-watching. I was surprised when the waitress handed us two roses: it was Mother’s Day and they gave red roses to every woman in the café. What a nice gesture! My best friend had excellent cappuccino and I had equally good herbal tea. I also got a biscuit while my best friend got a small portion of some sweet cream. Again, don’t you just love it when you get something extra free of charge? It was an unusually warm day and we enjoyed our drinks at the cafe’s shaded terrace. Since it was Sunday we came across two different food markets in the center: one was French, the other was German. We also saw a very unusual sports match, a kind of canoeing basketball (!?) at the Canal Grande. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).