by Victor Caneva
A fiery orange glow caught my eye while walking my son to preschool last Friday. Turning around, I looked across the gulf of Trieste beyond Miramare and Duino castles and was shocked by the clarity of the snow-laden Alps reflecting the sunrise. Seeing the Alps, especially white with snow, from Trieste makes me giddy – I’m still not used to it.
After living in Florida, the flattest state in the US, where the elevation tops out at a whopping 345 feet (105 meters), it is amazing to me to be able to see all the way past Udine and Pordenone to the mountains towering near the border of Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia. Some days I can even see them from my room (if I stand on the bed)!
After kicking myself for, once again, not bringing my camera with me on the way to school, I resolved to finally bag a photo I’d been wanting to take for three years. If you follow Trieste photography circles or just enjoy photos of this beautiful city, it quickly becomes clear that there are several quintessential shots of the city.
Certainly, pics of Trieste’s stately Comune in Piazza Unità d’Italia and of the Canale Grande culminating with the Chiesa Sant’Antonio are included in this list, but I’ve always been mesmerized by photos of elegant Miramare castle, dramatically framed by snowy Alps surging majestically in the background. These pictures give the landmark an even more fairytale-esque intrigue than usual.
I’ve always wanted to get my own version of the shot, especially as my interest in photography has grown, but getting to Barcola at the right time of day with amenable weather conditions when there aren’t more pressing things to do has proved difficult.
Inspired by the impressive clarity of the previous morning, I woke early and got bundled up for my trek to Barcola. I strapped my camera bag on my back and, for the first time in five years or more, I hopped on my solution for getting to Barcola and back without taking up most of the day.
In highschool, college, and afterward I surfed and skateboarded quite a bit, but as life got busier these once passions morphed into seldomly-practiced hobbies and then slowly faded away. Yes, it may have been a little ambitious to undertake a five and a half mile (one way) skate with below-freezing wind chills during a fairly feisty Bora, but I thought of no better way to celebrate growing in my current passion for photography than revisiting my former love for skating. Plus, I used to make really good time on a longboard.
The icy wind assaulted my eyes as I sped down the Rive. I had a rare moment of thankfulness for my cloth mask, which was now protecting me not only from tiresome viruses but from the stinging gusts of the Bora. It was exhilarating flying through empty, pre-dawn Trieste in the kind of briskness that wakes you up quickly – regardless of how you slept the night before. This was fun, but I knew my legs would be paying for it the next day.
About thirty minutes later, I arrived at the southern end of Barcola before sunrise. A few walkers strolled about the utterly peaceful lungomare that was otherwise silent save the soothing sound of the wind. This end of Barcola was more protected from the strong gusts than further up the coast toward Miramare and the sea was still and glassy, gently reflecting the masts of the sailboats moored at the nearby marina. I enjoyed a moment of quiet as I waited for the sun to rise and then began shooting.
I finally got to see the mountains rising behind Maximilian’s old shack in person – and it was stunning! The visibility wasn’t as good as the day before and the Alps didn’t blaze in quite the same fashion, but I had a wonderful time checking an important item off of my Trieste bucket list. After snapping a ridiculous amount of photos from various angles, it was time to start the long skate back and to prepare for the impending soreness that would surely follow.
Very nice article! My wife and I had lived in Trieste for a few months before a late summer bora blew through and provided the view of the mountains from the city center. We had seen pictures of Miramare with the mountains in the background and had assumed they were photoshopped until that day. Once the cooler weather set it, it was more common to see the mountains in the distance. Thanks for bringing back that memory with your article.