Mike and I love Italy. Most of you know that. And one of the great things about living in Vienna means that we're only a few hours from the border. We're close to a lot of borders here, and there are plenty of places we haven't been. But with our summer holiday restricted to something drive-able and dog-friendly, we found ourselves drifting back to Italy yet again.In April, over the Easter holidays, we had visited for the first time the region known as the Veneto. Residents of the crowded canals of Venice have long looked inland for larger country retreats, and we, too, found it a welcome break from the masses of tourists lining the Grand Canal. A few spring days in the hill town of Asolo begged for another, longer visit, so we organized our return trip around the small but lovely cities of Verona, Vicenza, and Padua.
Yes, yes, Italy is great, but where are the pictures of Pan?
Okay, gratuitous introduction behind us, we'll start our view of Pan's vacation still in Austria. To make the drive part a worthwhile part of the trip and not just a long, painful day in the car, we started out on Friday night and drove the few hours to Worthersee, a lake in south-central Austria. The next morning was spent relaxing before tackling the drive over the Alps, and all three of us enjoyed a little time lounging in the sun.
When we finally hit the road, we were in Italy within the hour and as the landscape flattened out, we took another break in the city of Udine. Famous these days for clothing and furniture outlet stores (all disappointing, in my book; besides, what are outlets without L.L. Bean and Ben & Jerry's?), Udine is actually a handsome northern Italian city, complete with the chic (full-price) fashion stores and fashionable populace that one associates with Milan. A 13th-century church and 16th-century castello crown a hill in the center of the town and views to the north stretch back to the Alps.
After a coffee, a gelato, and the purchase of a German Art Nouveau brass lamp that would crowd the car for the rest of the trip, we were on our way again. While the plan had been to spend the holiday in the Veneto, we also had always wanted to visit Trieste, and our first hotel in Italy placed us about an hour from that city and the Adriatic coast, in the mountains near the Slovenian border.
This part of Friuli-Venezia Giulia (the region occupying the extreme north-east corner of Italy) has shifted back and forth between regimes numerous times. Trieste itself was for many years the port of the Austro-Hungarian empire. But the densely wooded hills near the border with Slovenia (formerly part of Yugoslavia) have a decidedly eastern, Slavic feel. Much of the food is a mixture of Italian and Slovenian traditions, and the street signs are even in both Italian and Slovenian.
And if the food wasn't enough, the hotel's gorgeous view made it a perfect spot to relax for a few days.
More soon on Trieste, the Roman port city of Aquileia, and the lack of road signs for Treviso!
