Slovenia in the morning and blede in Friuli-Venezia Giulia in the afternoon

Today was exciting because I was able to add a new country to my list of those I've visited. Nora and I spent the day visiting her childhood home, the city of Gorizia in very northeastern Italy. We took the train from Venice early this morning finally arriving in Gorizia about 10:00. We stopped for a cappucino and croissant and then decided (at my prompting) to walk to Slovenia, the former Yugoslavia, to find the house she lived in as a very young girl. When she lived there, the house was in Italy, so yes, she is acually Italian. Just to clarify.

On the way, we passed the building she lived in as an older child and teenager.

Nora's former bedroom window

We also passed the Catholic church she attended partly so the neighbors wouldn't think her family were Communists. (The Communist party headquarters were in her building and prominently displayed their flag out the window next to Nora's apartment.)

We also passed the hospital Nora was taken to at age five, where her pediatrician offered to adopt her, take her to Boston eventually and encourage her to become a doctor. Nora's mother politely declined this offer.

After walking some discussion of which way road sign arrows were pointing, and some crossing of streets and walking up hill, we arrived at the border crossing. I had my passport with me and was sort of hoping to have to argue my way across, but no such luck. The crossing was completely unmanned. Nevertheless, I am proud to say that I am the first of my immediate family to be able to add Slovenia to my list of visited countries.
We walked into Slovenia and tried to find Nora's childhood home. On the way, I gathered Slovenian flora to press in my little leather notebook. Unfortunately, the flowers look exactly like Schenectady flora. I actually unwittingly gathered some fauna as well, in the form of a little buggy-thing I found crawling around among the flowers in my notebook.

When she spotted the church, she remembered that it had been on her left as she used to walk to her house. That, as it turns out, was enough information. We kept walking and suddenly, Nora spotted her house.
As I took pictures, Nora explained how the house and grounds had changed slightly since she had been there as a very young child. It is a beautiful house in a beautiful neighborhood that reminded me of some neighborhoods in Florida, strangely enough. Nora thought there were more palm trees now than she remembered, that she knew that when she was young, they had had one of the few palms in the neighborhood.

We started back to Italy, and ultimately to Castello Gorizia, at the top of a huge incline (as it should be, I guess). By this time the sun was hot, and the incline was steep. We made it up, after taking a couple short breaks, to be told that the castle would be closed until 3:00. In all the information we had (and Nora has visited this place several times) does it say it will be closed midday. So, after many apologies from the lady who greeted us with this news, we decided to descend and have some lunch. We finally went to a place that specializes in local food and had gnocchi with mint, some local red wine, a plate of meats and potatoes, some blede (Friuli-Venezia Giulia dialect for beet greens), and a small glass of a homemade liqueur: red wine, rum, cloves, cinnamon, lemon and some other stuff. A nice but heavy lunch, after which we had to ascend to the castle once more.

View of Gorizia from top of the castle

Finally, we descended once more and made it to the train station. The only excitement on the way home was when Nora discovered, after an hour, that we had plunked our tired selves down in the first class section. We'd both been dozing and enjoying the comfy seats and air conditioning. Once we realized our mistake, we moved to second class, where the seats were less comfy, and the air conditioning was barely evident. Oh well. No one ever checked our tickets, so we could have stayed where we were, but we are honest people.

Now I sit in the kitchen, the open window and the almost gibbous moon at my back and the sound of vaporetti and the neighbors closing their shutters against the night air. Today was interesting for many reasons, but one thing I didn't realize until I was walking in Gorizia. While I enjoyed my time there, I realized that I missed Venice. How strange that I could miss a place I've known for only ten days. I didn't enjoy having to dodge cars for the first time in ten days. I missed the water. Even though it was a great day filled with new experiences, I missed the other-worldly feel of Venice.