Is Trieste worth visiting? This question misframes what Trieste is. Most "is X worth visiting" questions are really asking "does X have enough famous sights to justify the journey?" Trieste has sights, the Miramare castle, Piazza Unità d'Italia, the Canal Grande, the Roman theater, but these aren't the reason to go. The reason to go is what Trieste is: the most Central European city in Italy, the most literary city in Italy after Florence, the city where James Joyce wrote most of Dubliners and began Ulysses, where Italo Svevo wrote La Coscienza di Zeno, where Rilke wrote the Duino Elegies at a castle on the coast, and where the coffee vocabulary is so specific and so different from the rest of Italy that ordering wrong is a rite of passage for every first visitor. Is Trieste worth visiting? Yes. The question is whether you want what Trieste offers: depth, melancholy, sophistication, and coffee that is correct in a way that no other Italian city can claim.
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What Trieste Is
Trieste was the main port of the Habsburg Empire for 300 years, the window through which Central European industry reached the Mediterranean. At its commercial peak in the 19th century, it was one of the most cosmopolitan cities in Europe: Italian, German, Slovenian, Greek, Serbian, Jewish communities overlapping in a cultural density that produced extraordinary literature, architecture, and food. The city's neoclassical streets, its enormous sea-front piazza, its Habsburg-era coffee houses, all visible products of this commercial prosperity. After World War I, Trieste was ceded to Italy. After World War II, it spent nine years as the Free Territory of Trieste (a UN-administered zone) before being assigned definitively to Italy in 1954. This complex political history has given the city a slightly unresolved identity that makes it fascinating to the culturally curious and frustrating to the casually touristic.
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The Coffee Culture of Trieste
The Triestino coffee vocabulary is the first thing every visitor to Trieste must learn. What the rest of Italy calls an espresso is here called a nero. A macchiato (espresso with a drop of milk) is here a capo, or a capo in b (capo in bianco, with cold milk) versus capo in c (capo in caldo, with hot milk). A caffè latte is a capo in b grande. Ordering a "cappuccino" in Trieste gets you something that looks like a cappuccino. Ordering a capo in b grande gets you something that the person who serves it is proud of. The difference is cultural registration. The historic coffee houses. Caffè San Marco (Via Cesare Battisti, open since 1914, unchanged in character), Caffè degli Specchi (Piazza Unità), Caffè Tommaseo (founded 1830), are worth visiting as institutions, not just as cafes.
Questions: Is Trieste Worth Visiting?
How do I get to Trieste?
Trieste Airport (Trieste Airport - Ronchi dei Legionari, TRS) has connections to several European cities. By train from Venice: 2h direct. From Milan: 3h30 via Venice. From Rome: 5h30 with connections. By car from Venice: A4 motorway east, then the coastal road, approximately 1h45. Trieste is 7km from the Slovenian border and easily combined with a visit to Slovenia (Ljubljana is 1h30 by car).
What is the Trieste literary connection?
James Joyce lived in Trieste from 1904 to 1915 (with interruptions), working as an English teacher and writing. Most of Dubliners was written here. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was largely written here. The early sections of Ulysses were conceived here. Italo Svevo (1861-1928), born Aron Hector Schmitz in Trieste, writing under a pseudonym that means "Italian Swabian", was a student of Joyce and the most important Italian modernist novelist. His friendship with Joyce (who helped promote Svevo's work internationally) produced one of the great literary collaborations of the early 20th century. The city's libraries and the Museo Joyce (small but genuine) document this history.
Is Miramare Castle worth visiting from Trieste?
Yes, it is 7km from the city center (bus or drive), spectacularly positioned on a headland above the sea, and was the residence of Maximilian of Habsburg (the ill-fated Emperor of Mexico, executed 1867) before his departure for the Americas. The gardens are open free. The castle interior charges entry. The views from the headland over the Adriatic toward Trieste and the Istrian peninsula are extraordinary. Allow 2-3 hours including the garden walk.
Is Trieste safe?
Very. Trieste is a mid-size Italian city (200,000 inhabitants) with very low crime rates by Italian standards. The old city and port area are completely safe at any hour. The city has a slightly melancholy, quiet character even in summer, it isn't a party destination.
Curiosità su Trieste
Il caffè Illy, il brand di caffè di alta qualità distribuito in tutto il mondo, fu fondato a Trieste nel 1933 da Francesco Illy, un imprenditore di origini ungheresi che aveva lavorato come perito commerciale prima di dedicarsi alla torrefazione. La sede principale è ancora a Trieste. Il fatto che il brand di caffè italiano più internazionale sia di Trieste, una città con radici austroungariche e una cultura del caffè viennese, non è una coincidenza. È il prodotto della stessa storia che ha reso Trieste il luogo più interessante d'Italia per chi vuole capire dove finisce l'Italia e comincia qualcos'altro. La risposta, qui, non è mai semplice. Vedi anche: Friuli · gite da Venezia · Aquileia.
