Sunday 27th April.
Had a bit of a lazy start this morning. I think it’s because we knew we weren’t going far.
Our next stop was to be Trieste. Apparently there are some fab Roman ruins there that Gareth wanted to see.
Getting onto the motorway was easy and i was map searching for an emptying area for the loo. It wasnt full but we like to empty it when the opportunity arises.
Anyway, while looking i saw this amazing town, patterned with 9 points. It is a town called Palmanova and was built totally as a defence against the invading Ottoman Turks.
The idea was that it would be a self sufficient town with craftsmen etc residing there but noone wanted to move there. This resulted in the government pardoning criminals and giving them a parcel of land to live in Palmanova. Who says crime doesn’t pay?
We took a small divert off of the motorway and parked inside the fortified walls for a quick look around.
It’s not ancient, dates back as far as the 16th century but wasnt finished until after Napoleon had occupied it so the buildings aren’t spectacular.
What it does have is an amazing Piazza with an unassuming Duomo watching over it. It was Sunday so all of the shops were shut but quite a few restaurants and bars were open.
In the piazza they have some ancient tools on display, showing how they used machine power rather than human or animals to crush things to powder and draw water from bore holes. Very interesting.
Each main entrance to the Piazza looks rather grand as two statues stand either side, sadly there werent any plaques to tell us who they were and their significance to the town.
I’ve included an aerial shot so you can see the layout. (page image above)
After a brief walkabout we chose a cafe playing some chilled music for a coffee. The sun was shining and it was warm, ahhhh.
It was so nice we had to drag ourselves away and get on with our day.
So, leaving Palmanova through one of its 3 main entrances we carried on to Trieste, stopping on the way to empty.
How disappointed were we that we couldn’t find anywhere to park in Trieste. All of the car parks were full and sadly they dont have designated camper parking.
Whilst driving along the seafront searching, we did catch a glimpse of a lovely Piazza and I’m afraid thats all we saw 
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We made a note not to return on a sunny weekend or late afternoon for next time.
The alternative choice was a parking space across the bay in a little place called Muggia, just before the Slovenian Border.
We are in a little carpark just back from the water and a stoney beach, no services, but thats ok and just a short walk into the village.
After a sit down on the beach wall to let Meg, and us, cool down, we wandered into the village.
There’s just a few bars and restaurants in the old part which is set back from the harbour road. We had dinner at one of the bars, nothing special but filled a need then grabbed a gelato each. Crossing the road to the harbour we found somewhere to sit in the sun and devoured our treats.
The sun is setting, we are in the van with a cup of tea trying not to go to bed too early 
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