Italy - 2025-06-21 'Starring' Palmanova

 

We took the train to Palmanova, the Star City. It is a walled city in the shape of a star and has a metric ton of history during Napoleonic Era and WWII. It seems as if the town, while it wants to be acknowledged, does not want to be inundated with tourists. You have to have found it and intentionally made it a destination.  There were almost no souvenir shops except for the one with the magnets. I would have bought several sterling silver pieces of jewelry with the star city walls, would they have existed.

It is a lovely small town off the beaten path that had very few tourists this day. The town 'square' is great and there's all kinds of architecture and art and loving tribute to it's participation in WWII and the damage it sustained.

There were many opportunities for walks and opportunities to see some history.

First stop - the Military Museum

And this dude scared the crap out of me as I rounded the corner of the room

And of course, the church on the piazza

This room, which was like an entryway, was adorned with this beautiful art.

It's time for a walk around and as previously stated, there were options.  We chose to go to the Anello Alto dei Rivellini - High Rings of the Rivelin - as it was purported that there were tunnels in the walls that Napoleon used as strongholds.  Turns out, he did and they were so cool -  both visually and temperature wise. Click to embiggen to see the detail of what water does to stone

It was super fun to go through all the tunnels and since almost no one was there, it was also mostly quiet.

It led us out to the river and then over to entrance to the Rivelin

All in all, a great morning. We ended with food, it was unremarkable, but filling, and took the train back to Triete.