art and food

it was all about family this weekend: peaceful, quality days spent with the most important people in my life: alice and alfonso. one of the things we did was a nice visit to nicoletta costa's exhibit downtown. she's a triestine illustrator of stories for children. alice loved reading books and watching the special edition cartoon of rabbit giulio coniglio, costa's most popular character.

the exhibition was held at gopcevich palace, a lovely building constructed in the 19th century in the neo-renaissance style, which was ordered as part of maria theresa's revitalization of the central area. there's a lot of joy coming from marvelling at the pink-and-white façade.

we then tried one of the newest giovanni rana's restaurant. they're specialised in fresh pasta, so they offer different versions of it, including the healthy green one made with basil and the one made with hot pepper (in red on the pic). they even have an unusual liquorece flavour (in black) and, to my surprise, they're launching chocolate ravioli. can you see them on the right? mmmh! 

i was tempted to try them, but then my istinct prevailed and i ended up opting for a plate of traditional ravioli. they were delicious, according to my picky husband too, who had the same. ali had some gnocchi with cheese sauce, which she nearly didn't touch since she had already had her mc nuggets. i know, i shouldn't have let her, but they're sponsoring one of her favorite cartoons this month, so she insisted on a happy meal and she as badly as a persuasive child can do. she won, making her daddy happy, because he had a double meal LOL

my rating about this restaurant is great, then. considering it's a self-service, quality was excellent, served by quick and gentle staff in a stylish atmosphere, too.  they had these curious, food themed lamps that are worth a prize for aesthetic by themselves and that immediately caught my attention. 

they were too irresistible for a burgeoning food columnist. i should really consider a career in food writing, yes, and then open a different blog about restaurants i've been to. who knows?

another beautiful activity we got involved with was joining a tour of the city on sunday. it was sponsored by the local tourist center to help promote the attraction of the region. the guide, bernardo, a second generation istrian who is fully integrated in the city that welcomed his family after the exodus from his country (i'm planning to write about it later this week, so stay tuned for my next posts!), guided us with excellent skills and savour-faire.

explaining the city to a bunch of tourists who see it for the first time is difficult, trieste history is too complex. it is also impossible to see it in an afternoon, as the art styles that cohexist here are various and there's too much to see. but the hours we spent with bernardo were lovely and he still did his best to introduce us to the main historical aspects and to the most relevant sites.  here's what i came up with while following this loquacious joyce's admirer.

unità d'italia square

 

roman amphiteater

saint antonio's church

and here's bernardo, talking to us near the statue of his beloved joyce, who loved trieste and lived here for several years. 

i used to work as a tourguide myself during my university years. it was a job i loved, because it allowed me to talk about art and meet new people daily, since i welcomed foreign tourists. maybe if i study trieste a bit more, i can apply for a job like this and be back to be a tourguide. once again ... who knows? life is so unpredictable and full of excitment possibilities. you only have to be prone to them!