Jesolo to Trieste

LIZ SAYS: We just got back from a short jaunt to Trieste, Italy, with a few day trips to Croatia and Slovenia. Trieste is at the top end of the boot facing the Adriatic Sea. Trieste is a rocking port town with a gorgeous square with shows all summer in one square or another. Jazz, Gospel, Rock, if it was music, it was happening. Even the televised journalism awards with a song every 5-7 minutes and the pale stone buildings on the square bathed in purples and blues was gorgeous, if noisy. Our hotel was right on the square so we were treated to everything from Eliza, an Alannis Morrisette clone, to the aforementioned live acts. We met up with Frederic and Adrian in Trieste. They were fresh from Venice and hungry for beaches. Our trip from France was a disaster. Both flights were canceled, but Luftansa did make a great effort to get us to Venice by way of Zurich and the
Europcar let us change our


reservation, so we drove from Venice to Trieste. It was a nice drive but we were starving. Swiss Air gave us some paste sandwiches made of a conglomeration of anonymous cheese, soy, eggs and who knows what on cold wheat bread. Utterly tasteless, texture less and grayish brown, yum. May I have some more, sir? So, now in our Fiat Panda we were at least in the out of doors, sun beaming, the air warm and a breeze blowing. We stopped at the first town that looked like it might have food. It was Jesolo. It’s funny how a little thing can blast open memories and joy. The choices were little sandwiches in a small beachy cafe. There it was, a tuna sandwich, made into a jelly roll shape on white bread. It was the first time in ages that I had seen a sandwich that was not on a croissant or baguette. Tuna on smushy white bread, like the sandwiches you get when you are a child. This one had cocktail onions, which looked odd, but tasted great with vinegar and a light onion flavor. The sandwich was nirvana. It was tiny but perfect, cold, sweet, vinegary and soft. Next door was a pizza place with a wood burning oven selling slices. One slice of diavolo (spicy) and I was stuffed and happy. Everyone in the town was fit, beautiful, in a bikini and 12 years old! The trash cans were big ice cream cones with a little hole for the trash. Cute town, overbuilt modern but cute.