Trieste is Italy's most Mitteleuropean city — for 150 years (1719-1918) it was the Austro-Hungarian Empire's main port, Vienna's window on the Mediterranean, the city where Italians, Slovenes, Croats, Sephardic Jews, Greek Orthodox and Germans mingled. This stratification has left an indelible imprint: in the neoclassical and Liberty architecture, in the coffee culture (here you don't say 'un caffè' but 'un nero', you don't speak of cappuccino but 'caffelatte'), in the border cuisine (goulash, jota, krapfen, strudel), in literature (James Joyce lived here 12 years and wrote most of Ulysses). From Venice by train: 1h 45' (€10-15). From Ljubljana (Slovenia): 2h 30' by train. Ronchi dei Legionari airport (TRS) is 30km away — APT bus (€4, 50 min) or taxi (€35).
Piazza Unità and the Historic Cafes
Piazza Unità d'Italia (Italy's largest square directly facing the sea, 120 x 245m) is Trieste's heart — the Palazzo del Municipio (neo-Baroque, 1875), Palazzo del Governo (neo-Renaissance, 1905), Palazzo Lloyd Triestino (the Austro-Hungarian Lloyd that dominated eastern Mediterranean maritime commerce) and Palazzo Stratti with the Caffè degli Specchi border it. The historic cafes are the first thing to do in Trieste: Caffè San Marco (Via Battisti, opened 1914, white and green marble tables, Viennese-style stained glass, the antiquarian bookshop in the former smoking room) is the intellectual cafe par excellence — frequented by Joyce, Svevo and Saba. Caffè Tommaseo (Piazza Tommaseo, 1830, Trieste's oldest). In all of them, the coffee vocabulary is peculiar: 'un nero' = espresso; 'un capo' = warm macchiato; 'un capo in B' = macchiato in a glass; 'un caffelatte' = what elsewhere is called cappuccino.
Castello di Miramare and the Karst
Castello di Miramare (7km from Trieste, bus 36, €12 for the castle, gardens free) is the neo-Gothic residence of Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg (1857-1860) on the limestone promontory overlooking the Gulf of Trieste — built when Maximilian was commander of the Austro-Hungarian fleet, before he accepted the crown of Mexico and was executed in 1867. The gardens (22 hectares on the sea) are freely accessible — the lower terrace with the gulf view is one of the Upper Adriatic's most beautiful viewpoints. The Karst is the karst plateau above Trieste (300-400m) — reachable by bus or on foot with 40 min climb. Characterised by sinkholes, caves and windy pastures. Grotta Gigante (15km from Trieste, €17, guided tour) has the world's largest tourist-accessible cave chamber — 107m tall, 280m long, 65m wide. The osmize (Karst rural cellars, open seasonally in spring and autumn) serve Terrano wine and local products — identified by the frasca (fir branch) hanging outside the door.
Joyce, Svevo and Triestine Literature
Trieste is a literary city — the density of writers per inhabitant in the 20th century was probably Italy's highest. James Joyce lived in Trieste from 1904 to 1920 (with a Zurich pause during the war) — he taught English, lived in poverty and wrote. Here he wrote Dubliners, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and most of Ulysses. The Joyce Museum (Via Madonna del Mare) marks the sites of his Triestine life. Italo Svevo (Aron Ettore Schmitz, 1861-1928) — Trieste's greatest novelist, author of Zeno's Conscience (1923) — was Joyce's friend and protégé, who encouraged him to publish the novel that had remained in a drawer for years. Umberto Saba (1883-1957) — the poet of the Canzoniere — ran the Libreria Antiquaria Umberto Saba (now a museum, Via San Nicolò 30) for 40 years, from which he observed city life and daily existence. The Canal Grande (not the Venetian one — it is a small canal entering the city from the sea, with the church of Sant'Antonio Taumaturgo at the end) is the heart of the Serb-Greek-Orthodox neighbourhood.
Practical tips
Coffee in Trieste has its own vocabulary — a 'nero' is an espresso, a 'capo' is a warm macchiato. Learn it or you will seem like a tourist
Castello di Miramare: the gardens are free — the terrace overlooking the gulf is worth visiting even without paying for the castle
Karst osmize open only in spring and autumn — look for the frasca (fir branch) hanging outside the door
Grotta Gigante (the world's largest visitable chamber) is 15km away — worth the €17 even if you are not cave enthusiasts
Trieste is ideal in spring and autumn — summer is warm but not scorching, winter has the Bora (violently cold wind)
Plan your Trieste weekend
Mitteleuropean cafes, Miramare and Karst — itinerary in 5 minutes.
Plan now
