Geographical puzzle

My fiction-writing life is much more glamorous than the rest of my life. Yesterday I received the galley proofs for Venetian Masks, and today I spent a couple hours at San Francisco's Caffe Trieste, reading them over. Which was perfectly appropriate, since a portion of the novel takes place in Trieste, Italy.

 

 

But I'm still left with a puzzle. Last fall, I was discussing Caffe Trieste with some Croatian friends who've been there. Now, Croatians know the city of Trieste very well. It's only a few miles from the Croatian border, and during the Yugoslav days, many Croatians went to Trieste to shop for things they couldn't get at home. In fact, upon learning that my grandfather was from Trieste (Trst in Croatian *g*), more than one Croatian told me I'm practically an honorary Croatian myself. Anyway, these particular friends claimed that the mural in the cafe depicts not Trieste, but rather the city of Rovinj. Located on the Istrian peninsula, very close to Trieste, Rovinj was once part of Italy but is now Croatian.

 

I've been to Trieste but not Rovinj. But looking at this photo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rovinj_old_town.jpg  I think my friends do have a point. That harbor does more closely resemble the one at the cafe than does the one in Trieste (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Triest_1885.jpg). Here's the mural; what do you think?