My visit to Trieste and Venice in May offered so much to enjoy and savour – history, great architecture, wonderful paintings and sculpture, memorable food and drink, and ever changing and relaxing sea and waterways. The physical world combined with sounds and smells to create distinct senses of place, of difference from the world of home. How does one rate, rank, the experiences? Was the Museo Revoltella better than the Museo Fortuny? And how do either of them compare with strolling along the Molo Audace and climbing the campanile of Torcello’s basilica? But this is not TripAdvisor, so that doesn’t matter.
Looking back now, the greatest pleasure had nothing to do with the elevated cultural offerings of two great cities. It came from rising early and walking the streets as they came to life with the rising sun, as pavements were swept and deliveries were made, as shutters were opened and tables and chairs put outside cafes, as people walked their dogs or made their way to work. In Trieste the streets, so noisy with traffic later in the day, echoed softly to footsteps and the first ‘Buongiorno’ at a crossing or a bus stop; and herring gulls welcomed the day from somewhere up on the grand fin de siècle rooftops. In Venice heels tapping, blackbirds singing and swifts calling, played counterpoint to the gentle slapping of water and the growl of the first vaporettoes. No crowds, no bustle, no hassle.
Then then picking up the aroma of pastries cooking, finding a bar open and sitting with an espresso and an apricot or marmalade croissant. Locals dropped into their favourite stop for a quick coffee at the counter, shared casual words with the owner and other regulars before heading off to work. A few sat and interrogated their phones, maybe focused on a TV screen – floods in Emilia-Romagna – or read a newspaper, but mostly it was a shifting, transient parade, so much part of the sense of Italy. They were snatched hours of pure relaxation, of savouring the simple pleasure of just being there, setting aside both the cares of the day before and the uncertainties about the one ahead.