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Learning back in my waterfront chair and contemplating the blue bosom of the Gulf of Trieste, the cold sharp taste of gingerino on my tongue and the last of the autumn sun on my cheeks, I blessed the timetable snarl-up that had landed me in this North Italian city with a couple of days to spare before my flight home. In common, I suspect, with most British travellers, I’d never thought of Trieste as more than an airport and a car hire desk – a handy place of transit, but hardly a city I’d actually want to visit for its own sake. Now here I was, and things were looking good in the old seaport on the Adriatic.

I drained my gingerino and resumed my stroll along the waterfront. Trieste is a great city for ambling and sauntering, the sort of place with plenty of corners and something intriguing waiting round each of them. I passed the big old art nouveau fishmarket and the line of boys and old men dangling their legs off the quay and casting in hopes of a mullet. Yacht halyards clinked in the marina, and there was a sniff of salt on the wind. Sunshine and cloud shadows chased across the green hills that enclosed the city like a shielding arm.

Trieste was a great trading centre in the 18th century, and its Canal Grande is a reminder of that prosperous era – a wide basin bobbing with boats between ranks of handsome warehouses and fine palazzi or merchants’ mansions. At the far end I walked through a bustling open-air market, a cornucopia of flowers, cheese and fruit, piles of handbags and shoes bunched like bananas. A stallholder munched an enormous ham sandwich while he cried his wares. Hmmm – time for a little smackerel of something.

The Caffé San Marco was a dark, delicious haven of peace and quiet. Lovers were lunching two by two under the soft glow of the big globe lights. A professorial gentleman sat alone over his pasta, scribbling in the margin of a thick, serious-looking book. The tagliatelli con funghi porcini was absolutely everything it should have been. Afterwards I took in a little culture at the Sartorio Museum, a private collection of art donated to the city, whose highlight was an extraordinary assembly of some 250 drawings by Giambattista Tiepolo. These priceless treasures of 18th century art had lain undiscovered for a century, and were sold for a few florins. There was also a beautiful 14th-century altarpiece, gilded and filled with exquisitely painted Biblical scenes.

Late in the afternoon it came on to rain. I ducked into Rigatteria, one of the immaculately kept second-hand shops in the old Jewish quarter, and spent a happy couple of hours rummaging through books, paintings, wax dolls, tin toys, glass camels, busts of Wagner and Verdi, and ancient 78s (Luciano Tajoli sings ‘Maňana la Sabras’). That kind of shopping is hungry work. By the time the street lights came on I was ensconced in the Buffet da Pepi, a real old fashioned eatery where they carve you a mighty plate of sausage and bolliti, boiled meat, which you eat standing up or sitting down with a nice glass of crunchy red terrano. Greasy magic.

In the morning, before my plane, I went souvenir shopping along the Via Cavana – a packet of herbal tea from Torrefazione, a scented candle from A Lume di Candela, a beautiful little blue and white vase from the hands of potter Patrizia Sillato at Il Biscotto. There was time to hurry up the hill of San Giusto for a stunning view from the castle ramparts across Trieste and its calm blue bay. Then it was a mad dash to the airport, with a head full of delights and a vow to return.

FACT BOX

Where to eat: Caffé San Marco, Via Battisti 18; Buffet da Pepi, Via Cassa di Risparmio 3
Cafés and snacking: Buon Appetito (ham, cheese, buns) and Chocolat (guess what) on Via Cavana; Il Pinguino on harbour; Caffé Tommaseo on Piazza Tommaseo on seafront.
Shopping: Torrefazione (teas, coffees) and A Lume di Candela (candles, flowers) on Via Cavana; Il Biscotto (pottery) on Via Venezian; Rigatteria and other second-hand shops around Via Malcanton area; Canal Grande street market (mornings).
Sartorio Museum: Largo Papa Giovanni XXIII; www.triestecultura.it.
Views: From castle ramparts on Colle di San Giusto, or take tram from Piazza Oberdan to hill village of Opicina.
Information: Trieste Tourist Office, Piazza Unità d’Italia 4b, 34121 Trieste; info.trieste@turismo.fvg.it; www.turismo.fvg.it.

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