My Favourite Time of Day

Trieste is a lot of fun in the evening when there are many restaurants and bars to go to, and lots of people around. But my favourite time of the day is when I go for a run in the early morning when I have the place almost to myself.
I leave the flat at around 630, and walk down to the waterfront (about 2 blocks.) These days with winter approaching, its still dark at that time.
I start running from the moment I get to the sea wall.
There are few people around at that time of the morning, but those that are are all characters!
I normally pass 2 or 3 opportunistic fishermen on one of the moorings near the Piazza Unita. I have no idea what they are fishing for as they never seem to catch anything and I haven't seen any containers for fish. But I think my lack of understanding is only fair, as they clearly have no idea what I am doing either from the looks I get with the Buongiornos! The Piazza looks amazing at this time of day. Completely empty except for the pigeons and the sea gulls, and with all the light still blazing as the sun slowly rises and the sky gradually lightens behind the main buildings in the square.
The next person I pass, near to the converted fish market that is currently housing the Andy Warhol exhibition is the Cat Lady. Almost every Italian city seems to have vast numbers of wild cats and Trieste is no exception. And where there are cats there tends to be at least one cat lady who feeds them all with scraps from a bag.
On the left I then pass some of the more functional areas of Trieste. Occasionally I see crew from the boats heading into or out of one of the 1 star hostels 'round the back of the square.
On the right there is the sea, with only the occasional ship on the horizon. It always looks perfectly flat at this time of day, and sometimes you can see the fish in the water.
At the AquaMarina - the last point on the outbound leg of the run I occasionally see an old man walking. He always encourages me to carry on running, which is probably a good thing at this point - although was a little frustrating when I had pulled a muscle and couldn't run!
The return journey often includes other people - a father and son from the army wearing their uniforms, and a few dog walkers. Then there are the 2 caribinieri who stand outside the building next to the Grand Canal, the Chinese cheap-shop owners unpacking boxes of tatt from China, and the small huddle of business men who linger outside the next door building to me, smoking cigarettes before they have to start their day in the office.
I return home at 730 - just in time to power up the coffee machine and get going to MIB.
I still hate it every time the alarm goes off, but the early mornings are a magical time, and make a day of statistics almost bearable.