We started last weekend's food fest with coffee and croissants at a bar near the Trieste train station. We actually splashed out the extra few euro to sit down and enjoy our breakfast - normally we just stand at the bar because sitting down can inflate your bill by quite a bit at some bars. We then caught a train to Cervignano and a bus to Grado. Grado is a lagoon town that used to be an port for ships heading to the once important Aquileia, and is now all about fishing and tourism.
On our way to the beach we couldn't pass up the opportunity to buy half a kilo of cherries for 1.83 Euro (~ 3 Oz dollars, yes, that's right $3, not our first born child). The beach at Grado is very long and divided into the paying section and the free section. You can probably guess which part we chose to swim in. We still can't get past the idea of paying to visit the beach, sure you get to sit in a row of people on identical beach chairs under identical umbrellas but the benefits seem to end there. Actually, I lie, the sign above is a warning for swimming in the free beach area, the English version reads "Danger - bathing not safe for luck of lifesaving service". No that's not
my typo. We're not sure if this is an observation on the success rate of the life saving service but with the water only up to belly height for at least the first 100 metres, and not a wave in site, we felt that we'd be ok.
For lunch we chose one of the many fish restaurants. I demolished a delicious plate of
spaghetti con vongole (clams) - I think I could taste the sea water, they were so fresh. Marito had
calamaretti fritti - these were lovely and tender and fried in a very thin batter. We washed it all down with the
vino bianco della casa.
Walking around Grado after lunch, we soon found ourselves at a gelateria. I usually take the Gelato Challenge (randomly trying a favour I've never heard of or tried before) when purchasing a delcious icy treat, however this time went for the never fail option of lemon and strawberry sorbets. We caught a ferry home from Grado (this also would have been a good option to get there, had it been on any of the tourism 'How to get there' sites for Grado). Putting into Trieste, we stopped near the
Pelorus - Roman Abramovich's 115 m, $US 3 million yacht, sorry
one of Abramovich's yachts...note the helicoptor parked on board...
For dinner that night we made a delicious
insalata caprese with ciabatta on the side. With a high yummy to effort ratio, I suggest everyone makes this salad and eats it up (tomatoes - cherry tomatoes are good, fresh buffalo mozarella, fresh basil, a good splash of olive oil and balsamic vinegar)...make it now!
We found out today that Italy is suspending the Schengen Agreement (free-for-all border crossings) from 28 June 2009 to 15 July 2009 during the G8 shenanigans in the Trieste area. This means that all border crossings in and out of Italy will be manned, just like back in the day. This made me wonder if the crossing in the photo will be manned. This is one of the only border crossings from Italy that can only be done on foot.
This border crossing with Slovenia can be reached from the Val Rosandra on the Italian side. The hut is on the Slovenian side and is not in the best nick if some poor sod is going to have to camp out there for a week. On the Italian side there is a small village called Botazzo where said poor sod could get some bread and cheese for his lunch...in between checking passports...
