The sunny terrace of Mama Angela wine bar is the perfect spot from which to appreciate the splendour of Gorizia’s Piazza della Vittoria. My train from Venice took more than two hours to chug its way here, and I now find it hard to believe I am still in Italy.

I’m sipping a delicious Slovene orange wine, other customers are mostly chatting in local dialect and Slovenian, and across the square are a glorious baroque church, a monumental Neptune fountain and romantic pastel palaces, all dating from when this was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire.