Touring Italy

One of the best things about Trieste is its proximity to other countries.  That sounds like a back-handed compliment, but it’s sincere.  Within 5 minutes, you can be in Slovenia (many Triestini would ask, “Why would anyone go to Slovenia?” but it actually has a lot to offer), another half hour can get you to Croatia (gorgeous) and Austria is barely farther than that (though in the opposite direction).  Plus Ryanair gets us anywhere else in Europe for ridiculously low rates.  The point is that Mel and I have been taking full advantage of that trait and have been leaving the country at nearly every opportunity.  It’s been great.

In fact, all of that traveling has made me overlook the rest of Italy a bit.  But no more.  April is officially “travel in Italy” month and it is off to an awesome start.

I’ve already posted about Venice.  Venice is a weird city.  At the risk of offending Venetians, there’s nothing specific that’s worth seeing there.  San Marco is packed with people and the Rialto is interesting only in that I didn’t realize tourist traps were that old.  There is no question that they have the least compelling sights in all of Italy.  With that said, it’s also my favorite city in Italy (Mel’s too).  The trick is that you have to have no itinerary and wander around, staying away from the Bermuda Triangle of Rialto, San Marco and Accademia.  If you do that, the city is unreal.  Literally, you can’t believe what you’re seeing.  Anyhow, that’s not the point.

The point is this: we have a friend who bought a Venice-based game.  It’s sort of a real life Da Vinci Code.  It uses puzzles to send you around Venice asking you to solve puzzles based on what you’re seeing, using the GPS in your phone to know when to send you the next message.  It’s awesome.  We will be spending all of our free time in Venice now, attempting to get through all 40 puzzles and solve the ultimate riddle.  If you’re interested, the game is called Whaiwhai and is also available for Rome, Florence and Verona (which is next on our list).  It is undeniably nerdy (and in some case made us/me look like idiots

but gave us the chance to see some easily missed parts of Venice, and in that city it is the easily missed parts that are always the best.

We also got to spend time in a typically Venetian bookstore with a typically Venetian fire exit.

While we were there, a friend who knows a lot more about Italy than I do pointed out that it was the one month of the year when moeche are in season.  Moeche are soft-shelled crab.  They lose their shell and the Venetian fisherman have to catch them in the six hours they have before the shell starts to grow back.  Tricky business, but absolutely delicious when it works out right.

I always work about half an hour at crab or lobster before I get one decent bite.  With these, every bite tastes like that one perfect one, except it requires no work.  So yeah, moeche are highly recommended.

Wow, these posts keep taking longer than I expect.  So we’ll save mosaics, flag throwing and the glories of train travel for next time.  See you then!