Firenze, Venezia, Trieste

After an amazing few days in Rome I was looking forward to exploring the renaissance wonderland of Florence. Unfortunately there were several factors which combined to greatly restrict this possibility.

First of all there was the lateness of my train. Although I had anticipated this to happen, in accordance with my other experiences of Italian timekeeping, it was nevertheless disappointing when I arrived at the main station around 9pm – nearly one-and-a-half hours later than scheduled. Once I’d found my hostel of choice, the Archi Rossi, selected because of its inexpensiveness, and sorted the accommodation arrangements (€19 for one night, perfectly acceptable), the streets were dark and deserted with little possibility for sightseeing.

I still went out though and had quite a nice walk around. Even at night some of the landmarks are stunning – although probably not as good as in daylight. Surprisingly, I heard a lot of American (or Canadian) voices in the ancient streets, which mere more crowded than the modern city centre.

This area was largely unspectacular compared to the famous architecture and well-preserved monuments. Litter was scattered around the pavements and the only possibility for eating was a fast food place where I had one of the worst tasting pizza slices ever, all plasticky and horrible.

Since there had been no time for proper exploration that evening, I planned to rise at the crack of dawn to look around some more. My train to Venice was due to leave at 8.39 and, despite the fact it was blatantly going to be late, this still left hardly any time in the morning. And it was restricted even further when the presence of a loudly-snoring fellow traveller in my shared hostel bedroom meant I couldn’t sleep til the small hours and was resultedly incapable of waking again at 6am.

So it was in a frenzied hurry that I jumped out at 8, silently scurrying around in the darkness with a torch in my mouth trying to prepare for imminent departure (and wishing I’d selected the other possible accommodation option, a single room for only a few more Euros). Only just caught the train, but at least managed to catch up on sleep for a while during the three-hour journey.

When I woke we were nearly at Venice and I was very excited. After seeing numerous pictures of and TV shows about the city at home, I couldn’t wait to discover it for myself. I was also meeting a friend here and looking forward to that as well.

And what a perfect day it was for going around. Beautiful reflections shimmered in the waters and the tourist hotspots were relatively quiet and peaceful. The concept of having a town build with canals instead of roads took a while to set in: public transport and ambulance services were boats. There was even a kind of traffic system in place with mirrors and signs dotted around.

As well as a breathtaking waterway structure, Venice also has a good road system for pedestrians with lots of charming bridges and narrow streets. I really enjoyed the non-presence of cars and other motor vehicles, especially after the chaos of Rome’s dangerous drivers. Lots of shops selling artistic, but slightly monotonous and boring, glass products from one of Venice’s islands were everywhere; these were interesting at first but then it was like you couldn’t escape them.

Venice is a city renowned for expensiveness, but it was funny comparing this reputation to some of the merchandise we found in one marketplace. If Rome is capital city of the fake garment trade, Venice is equivalent for fragrances. A few of the best were ‘Lacostimento’, ‘Lugo Ross’ and ‘Jommy Girl’. How can the vendors of such products maintain any shred of dignity in the sales industry? The answer is: they don’t, shamelessly pedalling their wares and targeting short-sighted people in particular. But I wasn’t surprised to see largely untouched piles of these boxes of blatant imitation.

My day in Venice was truly excellent and it was also very nice to have an Italian speaker with me. No more five-minute confusions trying to order pizza in Spanish with an Icelander (don’t ask, that’s another story – and not really too interesting).

We caught an evening train to Trieste, where I would be staying a couple of nights with the same friend, and I was warned this town would be a bit of a humbling experience after the glorious beauty of Venice.

But I wouldn’t say Trieste was a bad place, it’s just that nowhere in the world can possibly compete with Venice. Apparently the former has the oldest population in Italy, but also the best quality of life rating. As I wandered around the next day, both of these seemed to be true. Everyone was looking satisfied and contented with their existence and there were quite a few elderly citizens on the rampage with their lethal wheely trollies – how I’ve missed that from my local highstreet back in London.

When it came to young people, I encountered a large group letting off small fireworks outside what must have been a school, or somewhere nearby to one. It was their last day of term, so why not celebrate with a few purple-smoke-emitting tubes and showers of bright sparks, both of which had diminished effects during daytime? I was actually quite worried: these kids clearly hadn’t read the safety handbook, as they were standing in close proximity to the literally money-burning initiators of spontaneous combustion.

Even after I’d left this scenario behind, the air was occasionally shattered by loud bangs – and I feared each one might bring a collapsing pensioner.

The industrial territory of Trieste has actually had a very interesting history, cycling through different owners in quite a short space of time. One of the largest minority groups is Slovenians; the country’s borders are very close and this was to be my next destination.

I’ve never gone as far into the east of Europe as I will on this trip and it should be interesting to observe the cultural differences. Trieste has some nice history, but can’t really compete with the sheer grandeur of Rome, Florence or Venice. It’s just a “normal” place I suppose, but there’s nothing wrong with that and it gave me a taste of typical life in Italy.

It’s been great to see the country properly, although with Italy there’s always more waiting to be explored. In future I hope to visit Milan, Torino, Sicily and others, as well as having a lot more time to see Florence.