Gorizia

Today I visited the Italian city of Gorizia (Gorica in Slovenian). But first a word of explanation. Nova Gorica (New Gorica), where I am staying, is in Slovenia and is a city that was built after the war. It celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. It was established by the Yugoslavian authorities at that time when after the war the drawing of the border between Italy and Yugoslavia meant that Gorizia wound up in Italy and some suburbs/villages, including the main railway station, ended up on the Yugoslav side of the border. Effectively a wall was established that separated the two countries and thus Gorizia was separated from the lands to its north.  One of the positive things of the European Community is that there is now no longer any real border between the two countries in this area.

Gorizia is the older city and has the better architecture and shopping! But like a lot of Italian towns in the area  some parts are ugly and/or derelict and other parts resemble Venice. It even has an 11th century castle, which I visited. Although, as you can see from the photos, the walls need some weeding! In the centre of town they also had a book fair on. One thing they do well, like a lot of Italian cities is gelato and cream cakes. Ice cream  has a credibility there that it, sadly, just doesn't enjoy in English speaking countries.