The last biscotto

Stay tuned for the final bloated installment of...The Ferdinand Effect!

I don't have much time.  We've reserved a cab for 4:00 am and I still have to pack.  So bloat there may be but an abbreviated bloat.  

I was going to call this post "gates" but changed my mind while we were enjoying the evening under the trees at the cafe downstairs.

Here goes the bloat:

You'll never guess where this is.  It's the other side of the wrong entry gate to the botanical garden that we kept missing.  We finally got there and it was open!  But, moments after we arrived they accosted me and told me they had just closed.  And didn't I see the hours posted?  It closes at 1 on Tuesdays.

I did get to see a bit of it though...

This is us waiting for what turned out to be the wrong bus after we were escorted from the botanical park.  I just liked the way the sun came through the gate and made these patterns on the sidewalk.

Our next destination was Villa Revoltella.  It was so hard to see from the bus that we missed it twice on not one but two different bus lines, the 25 and the 26.  No matter.  We got to see some really interesting sides of Trieste, including a bizarre complex of 70s soviet style apartments on giant stilts.  It was so huge and hideous it dwarfed the view of the city and port below at least from where I sat on the bus...anyway we finally made it to Villa Revoltella, so difficult to find but had a very serene public park:

This is the caretaker's house when you first come through the gate:

I lay down on a bench just to soak up some of the peacefulness before our flight home.  I took a picture looking up at the top of the arbor.

Back in town, we hunted around for soccer jerseys for some cousins we know but had had no luck earlier in the day and then again in the afternoon.  So we stopped to get a drink while A ran to the train station to buy our tickets to Mestre for the early morning trip to the airport.

After that, we brought a picnic of sandwiches to Engelmann Park for one last stroll.

This was a gate across the street that I was going to end the post with...but now it's just a little diversion...

...and on our last day, N finally saw what he's been waiting for just sitting there almost right under our noses in a driveway not even a block from our apartment:  an Aston Martin Rapide

And here he is at the cafe under the trees.  I had to take a pic with his camera because I resolutely left my phone upstairs and was not going to run up 5 flights to get it.

And here is the literally last biscotto.  It was the last one in the cafe.  We ate the "l'ultimo biscotto"!  Sorry Mom!  Ok, technically it's not a cookie.

A crescent shaped city - Part 2

Before I go on with the tour I should tell you that A confirmed to me that Koper was during Roman times, an island named for the goats that inhabited it: Capra

The newer parts that included the McDonald's were filled in later to connect the island to the mainland.  If you want to know more you may want to consult good old Wikipedia.

It became obvious that lunch was needed and after trying a few different establishments that only served drinks, we were referred to this very inviting place called Atrij.  Again my photos don't show just how airy and different from anything we're used to this pizzeria is.  The patio is all windows and under a linden tree at the back of a small piazza used as a parking lot.

This salad was pretty good.  It's mixed seafood over seasoned rice and lettuce.

This is how they differentiated the men's room from the women's.  

After lunch A stopped by a department of the university that studies olives and olive oil production.  N and I waited outside while N scouted for cars.  He found this one close by.  N loves these Fiats that are tuned specially by a separate company.  According to his favorite show, Top Gear, these particular Fiats believe themselves to be Lamborghinis.  Just ask someone who drives one. 

The last return bus to Trieste was to leave at 5:30, so we had only a little more than an hour to see the rest of Koper.  Here's the view looking from inside the walls to the modern world beyond.

And this is a curious fountain that was not in use.  A says it probably was the town well before running water arrived.

Some more pictures of beautiful, decaying architecture.

A deserted building.

A disappeared up those steps only to emerge around the corner.

And here's one of the more modern entry/exits looking in from the outside of the walled part of the city.

I leave you with a few more landscapes captured at the speed limit.  The light had become more luxurious the closer we got to evening.

This lion looks so regal even though he's possibly long since been forgotten.