Italy’s relaxation of its travel restrictions for double-vaccinated Brits has many of us eyeing up the options for an autumn getaway. And why not? Come September, cities like Venice are no longer tourist traps (Dolce & Gabbana fashion shows aside) and yet the balmy weather remains. Many visitors head to Italy for Venice alone but they miss a trick by foregoing the beautiful nearby port town of Trieste – beloved by Italian holiday makers and yet untouched by Brits. With the Venetian authorities rumoured to be considering turnstiles on the periphery of Venice, Italy’s most iconic city increasingly feels like a museum. And so, for those left hankering for a slice of living, breathing Italian culture, Trieste is the perfect tonic.
As soon as Italy first scrapped quarantine for UK visitors, I booked a trip to Venice, where I planned to roam the squares great and small, dive down passages and nip into churches and museums with novel ease. After my onslaught of Venetian culture, I would jump on a regionale veloce and, two hours later, step out in a more off-piste but still wondrous corner of Italy: the former Habsburg port of Trieste, where the sights of a fascinating history combine with some of the best sunbathing and swimming in Europe.
Venice is hot in June, so after checking into the extraordinary Belmond Cipriani, a 1950s luxury hotel at the far end of the Giudecca, with vast gardens and vineyards, and rooms overlooking its own quiet, turquoise inlet, I went straight down to the swimming pool – the largest on the lagoon. Slightly heated and filled with sea water, it formed a blissful expanse, and I very much enjoyed paddling about in the quiet under the eye of the San Giorgio church cupola. Once dry, I nipped onto the hotel’s private shuttle boat to San Marco square, keen to reacquaint myself with the city and desperate for a perfect Venetian sunset.
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