June 3rd, 1873. Fine.

At six o'clock in the morning we passed out of Italian territory and arrived at Nabrežina [Aurisina] Station. This is on the border between Venice in Italy and the Austrian maritime territories. It is on the Adriatic coast and here the rugged Alps reach down close to the sea, so the countryside is far from flat. Eight miles south of Nabrezina the railway reaches the port of Trieste.

The Austrian government had ordered its former minister in Japan, Mr. [Heinrich von] Calicé, to accompany us. He, together with our Mr. Sano [Tsunetami], had been waiting for our party to arrive at the port of Trieste, but on receipt of a telegraph announcing that we were to arrive overland, he had come to meet us at Nabrezina Station. We were welcomed at the station and took breakfast there, too. We then boarded a train kindly furnished for us by the Austrian government and departed at half past seven.

Upon leaving the station, the train followed a route into the mountains, where boulders were strewn on both sides of the track, hemming it in. The mountains stretched ahead layer after layer, and the track wound its way through them. At nine o'clock we passed the village of Saint Peter [Pivka], and all the way to the station at Laibach [Ljubljana] the scenery through the mountains was unchanging.