In the nineteenth-century, a gentleman named Pasquale Revoltella ran a successful import-export company in Trieste. He had heard of plans to forge a canal through the Sinai Peninsula, the wobbly tooth that connects Africa to Asia, which would make international shipping a far less lengthy ordeal.
He became a major funder and later the Vice President of the Suez Canal Company. He, among thousands of other merchant sailors, migrants and travellers, took the boat from Trieste through the Adriatic to the mouth of the Suez, and it is the historical importance of this route that means my crossing tomorrow is still possible.
So I learnt at the Museum of Oriental Art a few doors down from my hotel. Here I am taken under the wing of an overly enthusiastic attendant who whisked me around every exhibit in a race against closing time. When I think I've got rid of her, she takes me on a walking tour of Trieste, showing me sights that are every bit batty as she is. She drugs me with her softly-spoken Italian and her manner of humming in response to my questions, and tries to take me home for dinner.
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