Where does Italy end? Certainly at Muggia in the Northeast, a town that concludes and redeems the discordant notes of Trieste. The latter is one of Italy’s lesser-known “capitals”, which at summer’s end reveals choices that no interpretation can make sense of.

Nestled between Trieste and Muggia is the notable village of Aquilinia, designed under Fascism for the families of workers at the sprawling Aquila refinery, which from 1937 to the mid-1980s was a pillar of the Venezia Giulia region’s economy. From there it’s a short hop to Muggia, where the enthusiasm of youngsters, laughing as only young people can, transforms a concrete jetty into the Mediterranean’s most beautiful beach.