Rijeka is just 75 minutes away from Italy, so after Jonah's morning soccer game (more on that later this week), we got back in the rental car and headed for Trieste. We really just wanted to eat, and that's what we did. Jonah claimed that the pizza was the best he's ever had, ever. Adam and I marveled at how perfect a simple green salad can be, with oil and vinegar, and the house red. The gnocchi is unlike anything available at home -- this version had baby shrimp, rucola, and pine nuts in a cream sauce. Lucy and Georgia kept asking if they could have more of Adam's "little pillows." After lunch we went to a gelateria and the selection was everything I built it up to be. Lucy had nutella gelato, Jonah had kiwi, and Georgie's was less adventurous (strawberry and lemon). I can't even remember the name of what I had, but I wish I had ordered the pinenut gelato. Next time...
Before eating, we walked along the Grand Canal and ended up in the main square, where there had obviously been some sort of children's carnivale event. The ground was strewn with paper confetti and paper streamers. The kids weren't at all disappointed about missing the parade (they'll get enough of that in the next two weeks here), but they enjoyed seeing the little kids in what look like Halloween costumes, and they were entertained for a long time scrambling to collect as much confetti as the little discarded pastry bag they found on the ground could hold.
On the way home, we got stopped by the Slovenian toll police for not having purchased a "vignette" which allows you to drive on the main highway, and we had to pay a 150 Euro fine (about $205). We came to Trieste by a different route and didn't need this sticker, and on the way home, with a GPS that only worked in Croatia, we accidentally ended up on this highway rather than the one we took to get to Italy. This sticker for the toll was supposed to be purchased before entering Slovenia, from a gas station in Italy, but there were no signs about the need for the toll or the penalty for not having one in anything but Slovenian. I am not arguing with the cost of the toll, which by the way was about $20 for 20 miles, rather, it was how intentionally confusing the process was to get the sticker. And the paperwork about the fine was a whole typewritten page in very clear English. So we are going to hold a grudge and boycott Slovenia.
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| Gelato |
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| Crystal Restaurant, Trieste |
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| Spaghetti Vongole, Crystal Restaurant, Trieste |
