Trieste has been called the ultimate nowhere-place: officially part of several successive countries and empires through the ages, yet spiritually bound to none of them. Many of the 200,000 Triestine, I came to learn, do not see themselves as truly Italian. They belong to Trieste, and Trieste alone. In fact, a small but committed independence movement is seeking the recognition of Trieste as a free city-state.

From 16th to the end of World War l it was a part of Habsburg Empire, but more a city – state than ruled by anyone. Then inhabited by the citizens of the ex – Yugoslavia and Gypsies.

Me visiting this city was kinda ad hoc everytime, as I was catching the low budget flights from local airport to Sicily and later to London. That time I was living in Zagreb as a student and tried to catch the world by its tail. Fours years laer, still the same… 🙂

My local guide was a great friend of mine Andrea, who I met in Barcelona couple of years ago. So, he showed me great places and offered me great local specialties.

We sterted with the main square Piazza Unita d’Italia with many head office buildings mostly of  classical architecture.

Main Square Piazza dell’Unita d’Italia

Statues of Thetis and Venus

In the middle of the square is the monument of  Thetis (sea nymphe) and Venus.  As the square faces the Adriatic sea it shows how important seaport it was since the Austro-Hungarian Empire times. Actually, I would call it an elegant triumph of Austro-Hungarian town planning.

Le Sartine are famous stressless ladies sitting next to the sea and chatting around. I found them very inspirative so I decided to sit next to them. 🙂

In the end we climbed to the hill San Giusto and enjoyed the great view of the city. We had a local spritz drink and some pizzetta crisps and fingerfood.

Being placed atop a small hill in northern Croatia, Trakošćan Castle looks like a fairytale castle, proudly peeking its spires.

It dates back to the 13 century as pat of fortification system and small observation fortress for monitoring the road from Ptuj, Slovenia.

According to a legend, Trakošćan was named after another fortification (arx Thacorum) that was built at the same spot back in antiquity. Another source claims that it was named after the knights of Drachenstein who were in control of the region in early Middle Ages.

The later owners were Counts of Celje, which the same time ruled with entire Zagorje County (my hometown region!) 🙂 then in some moment it was even given to Ivanis Korvin – King of Bosnia and illegitimate son of Matthias Korvin, King of Hungary. Oh tempora! 

Later Habsburg Emperor Maximilian I gave it to croatian noble Juraj Draskovic, so finally as of 16th century, Trakoscan belongs to Draskovic family until the independence of Republic of Croatia from Yugoslavia, when the castle started to be owned by the Republic of Croatia with the permanent exhibition of the building.

The museum features large artworkcollection from the Renaissance to historicism, with pieces ranging from paintings to furniture and small armory. There is also a set of dungeons below the castle.

The castle is surrounded by the artificial lake and a forest with numerous paths to walk. Today, people are coming on a sunny day to have a picnic with a great view on a mighty castle.

This time in Slovenia, my brother and I visited Styria region again. We woke up earlier and took our car to the road from my hometown Krapina in Croatia.

Ptuj is the oldest city in Slovenia. There is evidence that the area was settled in the Stone Age and the Late Iron Age when it was settled by Celts. By the 1st century BC, the settlement was controlled by Ancient Rome as part of the Pannonian province. From these times, the first written mention of the city of Ptuj is dating, thanks to Roman Emperor Vespasian.

Traces of Roman Empire in Ptuj

Traces of Roman Empire in Ptuj

Traces of Roman Empire in Ptuj

From those times it is dating  Orpheus Monument, almost 5 metres high carved of white Pohorje marble. The monument is the oldest public monument preserved in its original location in Slovenia and actually a grave marker from 2nd century, to honor the memory of Marcus Valerius Verus.

In the Middle Ages, it was used as a pillory of shame, where criminals were tied to the iron rings attached to its lower part. Nowadays has the status of a national cultural monument

From those times it is dating  Orpheus Monument, almost 5 metres high carved of white Pohorje marble. The monument is the oldest public monument preserved in its original location in Slovenia and actually a grave marker from 2nd century, to honor the memory of Marcus Valerius Verus.

The city has beautiful reneissance architecture, so my brother and I really enjoyed the beauty and the peace the city offers. So many small streets, yet wide enough with tall houses and small windows, decorations on the walls whitnessing the crafts of the times . Today many  small shops and bars are occupying these spaces.

Approaching the main square in Ptuj

Renaissance crafts’ symbols

Saint Florian – patronate of Ptuj, 18 century

City Hall

Renaissance architecture

In the early Middle ages, after the fall of Roman Empire, the Slavic tribes are populating the area, and Ptuj became part of the Frankish Empire.

Soon, after the renaissance, the Ottomans are trying to enter the city, so the citizens are building the Ptuj castle (originally from 12th century). The castle is situated on a hill alongside the river Drava overlooking the town, and is a prominent landmark.

Secret passages below the castle of Ptuj

The tower of the castle

Main yard and the statue of St Florian

Atrium of castle

Heraldry

The last Lord of Ptuj, Friedrich IX, died in 15 century. His tombstone made of red marble from Salzburg, is built in the ground floor of the castle, where it was brought from a devastated Dominican church.

This mighty fortified construction was handovered then to the Hungarian leaders and Austrian Emperor Maximilian l.

It will take five more centuries  to be returned to its original slovenian owners.

A strategically remarkable position from which it was possible to control the vast surrounding flatland, was the main reason why the castle was important. The same beauty of the views on nearby Alps, river Danube, neighbour country Croatia and local wineyard region are the reason why many tourists visit this place. My brother and I decided to enjoy the exhibiton of the ottoman/islam portraits and glass of Traminac (croatian – slovenian sort of wine).

I am not sure if you still remember the oldest grape variety in the worldfrom Maribor Lent, but its graft was planted there too.

Traminac wine (croatian – slovenian sort)

Maur portrait

Graft of the oldest grape variety in the worldfrom Maribor Lent.

Enjoy the view!

The very beautiful Macedonia (FYR of Macedonia, to be more exact) 🙂 after belonging to many empires over time, it is nowadays mostly shared by Christians and Muslims, who still come together at the fascinating Old Bazaar in Skopje, one of the Balkans’ largest markets.

The territory of Skopje has been inhabited since the times of Neolithic and later Bronze ages. The most famous settlements have been found within the old Kale Fortress situated upon the city. The word kale arrives from turkish  word for the fortress. The fortress is thought to have been built during the rule of emperor Justinian I, the Byzantin Emperor.

Macedonia was part of Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman Empire, and most recently it was a federal Yugoslavian republic until it gained its independence in 1991, and Skopje became country’s political, cultural, economic, and academic center.

The city survived the great earthquake in 1963 of a 6.1 magnitude which destroyed 80% of the area. Today’s symbol of the earthquake is The Old Railway Station in Skopje with the clock on it. The clock stopped at 5.17 on July 26, 1963 as the earthquake hit the city.

Through Skopje flows the river Vardar over which is spreaded Stone Bridge that connects city center and Old Bazaar. Built on Roman foundations under the patronage of Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror, the bridge is also less frequently known as the Dušan Bridge after Stephen Uroš IV /Dušan of Serbia.

My very good friend from Skopje brought me up the city walls to eat typical local food: ajvar (various vegetables’ souce) and drink Skopsko beer.  The place where we ate is called Čaršija and has many great restaurants with local food, music and the best view on the city.

Ajvar

Skopsko beer

Skopje has a projekt of 2014 which has been postponed to nowadays. It includes building many statues, renovating old buildings and building new ones but with its upmost kitchy style if I am to be asked, and many locals too, especially if they are asked where their money is going to. The estimated unofficial price tag of the project is €500 million.

It is a project of a questionable taste that brings in conflict urbanisms vs. politics as the government is trying to re-build the history as weel by this project. This is well to be seen with the Statue of the Warrior on a Horse, supposed to be Alexander The Great or Alexander of Macedonia (which was that time the region of Greece).

Then there are this small statues after every corner representing girls from Skopje or some other public figure…

Skopje girls

Skopje girls having a bath

Then there is this kitchy bridge, one of many actually, over the river Vardar, with many lamps and statues, again.

Aside from locals who have issues with the cost, I have to say this Porta Macedonia looks great. A triumphal arch located on Pella Square, whos construction started in 2011 (small giggle) 🙂

The Greek Foreign Ministry has lodged an official complaint to authorities in the Republic of Macedonia following the inauguration of the arch which features images of historical figures including Alexander the Great, ofcourse. 🙂

Amongst famous people from Macedonia, are Mother Teresa and singer Toše Proeski. 

Although she was from parents of albenian heritage, she was born in Skopje in 1910 (then part of Ottoman Empire) and practiced christian catholics religion. She left to Calcutta, India and became famous for her work to help the poor, and was affectionately called the “saint of the gutters”. Before she died, she recieved the Nobel Prize for Peace. As a nun and missionary, the pope Francis  canonized her as Saint Teresa of Calcutta.

Toše Proeski was pop singer from Skopje, born in 1981 and popular across Balkan area but died in a car accident on a highway in Croatia coming back from his concert. He was 26.

After Skopje I was heading to Mavrovo. A national park consisted of Šar mountain and Lake Mavrovo.  We were accommodated in a 5 star hotel Mavrovo for 4 beautiful days.

Set in breathtaking scenery amid grassy plateaus and snowy peaks, the abandoned church of St Nicholas was reportedly the victim of an artificial lake created to supply water to a local power plant.

We visited as well the cave Šarkova dupka, found by locals and guided down by them as well. It was claustrophobic at the beginning but we managed to do it.

Travelling more through the National Park of Mavrovo, we were admiring the green landscape that was covering rocky mountains and their cliffs secered by the brooks and rivers.

The last point we reached was a Macedonian Orthodox monastery Saint Jovan Bigorski, lovated on a cliff amongst the forest as mystical place. The church is dedicated to saint John the Baptist with many beautiful frescos inside. It is considered one of the finest examples of wood-carved iconostases. According to its 1833 chronicle, the monastery was built in 1020 by Ivan I Debranin. The Ottomans destroyed the monastery in the 16th century, but it was restored in 1743 by the monk Ilarion.

The monastery has a large collection of holy relics including John the Baptist, Clement of Ohrid, Lazarus of Bethany, Saint Stephen, Saint Nicholas, Saint Barbara and part of the Holy Cross.

Keukenhof is Hollands most famous tulip garden in bloom. It is open for 7 weeks every year and has a variety of  more than 7 million bulbs in bloom with a total of 800 varieties of tulips. In 2017, you can visit the tulip gardens of Keukenhof from March 22 until May 21.

I went there for a one day trip with my colleague and friend from work. As we were approaching the place, we were whitnessing many tulip fields in different colours. People were walking down the paths between those fields or cycling. It was amazing. 🙂

At the entrance to the garden or the park itself, there were many shops with various flowers to grow like tulip bulbs, hyacinth etc. We decided to take the coffee first and slowly walk around.

The majority of flowers that decorate this garden are the various types of tulips with various colors. However, biodiversity adorns the Garden of Europe is not only that, in Keukenhof you can also find various other interesting flowers, such as lavender, rose, chrysanthemum, daffodils etc. The flowers are planted, arranged and combined in such good based on the annual theme, of course, with the added touch of Dutch culture, make beauty rows of colorful flowers.

Fun fact: originally cultivated in the Ottoman Empire (present-day Turkey), Holland began importing tulips in the 1500s. In the17 century, tulips were so popular that they created the first economic bubble, known as “Tulip Mania” (Tulipomania). As people bought the bulbs like crazy, tulips became so expensive that they were used as money until the market in them crashed. 🙂 Crazy Dutch!

So much to discover about about Sicilian capital, and so less time… I had a day and a half and made my best of the days! I woke up early in the morning and crashed into the buzz of the Saturday’s streets.

The city is such a mixture of Western, Islamic and Byzantine styles which is the reason many of the region’s churches have been granted Unesco World Heritage status. My first sightseeing was stunning Palatine Chapel  to see the ornate mosaics, the royal chapel of the Norman kings of Sicily. The chapel dates from 12 century and it is dedicated to Saint Peter.

It is the place where Joanna of England married becoming a Queen of Sicily, just before the third Crusade, 12 century. She was a little sister of Richard the Lionheart who was leading the Third Crusade. Allegedly, he was even offering her hand to Salamon, but Joanna refused as she did not want to marry a muslim. History remembers her as a woman whose masculine spirit overcame the weakness of her sex.

Next to it I discovered Catacombe dei Cappuccini – mummified remains of the 16th-century Capuchin monks. With the time, rich citizens of Palermo  started to be burried in their crypt. It actually became a bit of a status symbol. Families would visit the catacombs to pray with their deceased loved ones, and there are thousands of bodies there, in different states of preservation, and some set in particular poses. The most schocking for me was a 4 years old girl, the youngest burried body, died of cholera and hence preserved in its best condition. For the personal respective reasons of mine and finding it inappropriate, I will not post the photo here of her.

After this,  I just needed a refreshment so I walked around and discovered the streets, admiring the architecture and noticed lots of balconies on the buildings. Streets were loud, chaotic, lots of cars and neurotic drivers, but I guess it is Italian way 🙂 It is one of the reasons why sicilian mafia Cosa Nostra is succesful.  The city is constructed as cross points of many small streets ending in weird directions which was fruitful for the development of crime in small, abstruse and dark streets. The local government decided to reshape the city and built some avenues to make it a bit more spacious.

Basta! Time for a coffee!

And this is what you get when you order a coffee to go in Palermo! 🙂 As the Italians are famous by drinking their small espresso at the bar quickl while it is still hot. My failure of trying to be local, obviously! 🙂

Wondering around I discovered the birth house of Giuseppe Garibaldi. The Italian general, politician and nationalist who played a large role in the history of Italy, by uniting the city states into a kingdom during the Italian Revoluiton of 19th century, placing King Vittorio Emanuele l at the throne.

Birth house of the revolutionar Garibaldi

Memorial stone on the birth house

Close by is the theater dedicated to him called Teatro Politeama Garibaldi located in the central Piazza Ruggero Settimo. It is aristotratic opera house, built in the neoclassical architectural style.

Note on the photo cheerfully painted wooden carts. It was the Ancient Greeks who brought the concept of a simple, rectangular cart with two wheels to Sicily and carts of this type can be seen in the Roman mosaics at Piazza Armerina. They are called Patti Chiari. 

By that time I was already hungry so I ran towards the market. And there I realized Palermo’s importance as a trading centre. Just the spirit that lives on in the city’s lively markets, like Vucciria (meaning ‘chatter’ or ‘hubbub’) made me feel lively as well. There was lots of cheap food, vegetables and even cheap vintage clothes, all while inhaling the scents of flowers and spices and taking in the bright colours. 🙂 Sicily you are vivid!

Market Vucciria, fish.

Market Vucciria, green vegetables.

One of the sites of Palermo is Quattro Canti at Piazza Vigliena.  It is a baroque square built in 17 century, with the facades of bronze and marble that contain fountains with statues of the four seasons, the four Spanish kings of Sicily, and of the patronesses of Palermo, (Christina, Ninfa, Olivia and Agata).

The largest of italian islands, seeking for independence and great place of landscapes – it is a gift of God! My 8 days of discovering northern part of Sicily was just not enough! 🙂

So here is how it started!

Prior landing to Palermo Airport, we flew over crater of Etna – 3,323 m high volcano that is still active. Apparently it has long and even mythological history: Aetna was the mother of Zeus of the Palikoi, gods of geysers and hot-water springs. The giant Typhoeus or Enkelados (Enceladus) was buried beneath the bulk of the vulcano. His restless turnings were the cause of earthquakes and lava-flows.

Travelling through the islands I admired the agriculture, fields, wineyards, smells of nature and tame villages! Everywhere we go, there were yellow flowers called mimosis!

Yellow fields of Sicily.

Mimosis

Sheeps

Being there I was eager to try some of their wines. Sicily has more vineyards than any other region in Italy; it also grows more grapes. Indeed, this island is blessed with the climate and great rows of wineyards. I tried Malvasia and Perricone. 🙂

The earliest archaeological evidence of human activity on the island dates from as early as 12,000 BC. By around 750 BC, Sicily had three Phoenician and a dozen Greek colonies and, for the next 600 years, it was the site of the Sicilian Wars and the Punic Wars, which ended with the Roman Republic’s destruction of Carthage at the battle of Carthage in 2nd century.

We visited Segesta: originally one of the major cities of the Elymian people, one of the three indigenous peoples of Sicily, but later a Greek colony. There can be found a doric temple of Segesta and amphitheater. It is said, wherever the Greeks builded the temple as a place of worshipping – it must have been a speacial place to do so. Unfortunately, the city was destroyed by Vandals, like almost every ancient city of Europe of that time.

Then there was Trapani! Founded by the mentioned Elymians, the city is still an important fishing port and the main gateway to the nearby Egadi Islands. In ancient times, Saturn was the god-protector of Trapani. Today, Saturn’s statue stands in a piazza in the centre of the city.

From Trapani up to the hill is the old city of Erice. There are two castles that remain in the city: Pepoli Castle, which dates from Saracen times, and the Venus Castle, dating from the Norman period, built on top of the ancient Temple of Venus, where Venus Ericina was worshipped.

In Alcamo we had canoli – typical sweet sicilian dolci. Too sweet if you ask me, but it was a worth to try by visiting typical gelateria and buying some local products.  

That night we decided to scroll down the bar and try italian liquors. 🙂 Digestivos are alcoholic drinks infused with herbs or aromas such as limoncello, fragolino (strawberry liquor), maraschino (cherry liquor) or  nocino (nut liquor).

My night-out finished at 5 am, watching the sun rise over the nearby city Castellamare  del Golfo and admiring this beautiful island. 🙂 There was something so special about it.