22nd August:
So, finally the last morning of Muggia has broken. We got all our stuff packed once more and had one last coffee in Muggia before we headed off to our ferry to Trieste (needless to say that we took icecream with us 😉).
We waited for one hour at the ferry station watching the sea. Now there was finally time to be sad that it was over at last.
The time passed so quickly, and ever more people arrived at the pier. At noon then the ferry arrived and we enjoyed our 30 minutes trip over the sea to Trieste.
In Trieste we hiked for the last time with our backpacks on our backs to our Air B&B from Valentina. It was 2km but uphill. 😉
At the B&B we finally met my parents who have also just arrived. The accomodation was really very nice with a large terrace with view down on Trieste and the sea. Worth the hike uphill. 😉
In the evening we strolled around in the city and had pizza and gelati. 😉
23rd August:
Today my parents and we wanted to visit the castle Miramare. We took the bus from the center which was at first rather crowded but it got better the farer we headed outside the city. On the way to Miramare there was a long pier with a lot of people (mostly elderly ones) bathing both in the sun and the sea.
After arriving at the final stop of the bus line at Miramare we walked a little through nice gardens before we arrived at the castle itself. There were a lot of people around – it’s quite the tourist hot spot. 😉
Afterwards we crossed through the whole park of the castle and reached the old train station of Miramare (same age like the castle itself). From there we walked a path of sandstones uphill (200m) for about 2km, mostly via stairs of sandstone. This was an old path the empress of Austria Sisi was said to have walked very often.
Then we had a few kilometres until we reached Prosecco, the town we both knew so very well from our AAT. 🙂 We went to the Trattorio Sociale for lunch (the same trattoria we wanted to have dinner at some weeks ago on the trail but were too tired in the evening to leave our accomodation 😉 ) and it was really nice sitting outside in the cool shadow. And my father still dreams of the calamari fritti. 😉 And obviously the white wine was very good!
In the early afternoon we relived together with my parents one very beautiful part of the trail, the Strada Napoleonica. It was rather warm and there were rarely other people around – just the contrary when we hiked this Strada on a fine Sunday morning. 😉
Arriving at the Obelisco at the end of the Strada we wanted to take the tram down which was said to be a highlight. But after waiting around and then doing some research on Google we found out that the tram was currently not in service. 🙁 So, instead, we hiked a rather steep street down to Trieste again. It wasn’t too bad, though, because there was next to no traffic and my mother had the chance to taste some figs, grapes and other stuff. 😉
In the evening we went downhill again into the city center and met with Martin in a trattoria for our last goodbye lunch. And of course one last wonderful Italian icecream afterwards. Man, I’m really gonna miss the icecream back home. And of course the coffee.
But most of all I’ll miss getting up in the morning, shouldering my backpack and starting off into a foreign territory, not knowing what to expect but going wherever the road would lead and as far as my feet could carry me. And honestly, up to now they did a damn fine job!
I’ll miss this easy way of life, no big worries, no big needs and being rewarded with so many wonderful experiences and meeting great people on the way.