VIVA LA VITA

Castello Di Duino was our second stop on our first day in Italy.

We arrived early afternoon to check out Miramare Castle and after a short drive further up the road, we arrived in the village of Duino.

Unfortunately, being tourists on an organized trip, we didn’t have enough time to check out the castle itself, we only got a glimpse of it from the side of the hill. We walked through a beautiful little forest all the way to the edge of the cliffs and got a view of the castle.

After a while, it was time to head back to the bus to make our way to Lido di Jesolo.

We arrived in Jesolo in time for dinner.

After a quick stroll on the beach with my sister, and compulsory souvenir shopping, we took a gamble and went to the first pizzeria we could find.

We sat down in Al Veliero and to my surprise, the place was full of locals. That’s always a good sign.

Rustic decor, staff shouting at each other in Italian and throwing hands around, kids sipping up their spaghetti and beautiful smell coming out of the kitchen.

We were in for a treat.

We ordered a carafe of local wine and something I haven’t had in ages – fresh mussels.

But first, there was pizza. Cheese, crunchy, happy piece of heaven. No matter where you eat pizza, you can’t beat the real stuff from Italy.

Followed by lovely mussels served with fresh bread.

I have a thing for mussels. Give me a bucket of those with a bottle of white wine and I am a happy puppy.

As an experienced mussels enthusiast, I was showing my sister how to eat them and managed to almost blind myself by squirting lemon straight to my eye.

From the very little of Jesolo I saw, it’s a lovely area for a holiday if you’re coming with family and kids. The area is full of hotels and residential blocks but still doesn’t feel too much like a tourist district.

We stayed in a small apartment hotel which was organized and picked by the travel agency we used for the trip (we took a bus trip from Slovakia to Italy). The next day, we were rested and ready to explore Venice and Murano.