Between the mountains and the sea (Trieste)

Member Name: vhart

Product:	Trieste
Date:	01/04/02 (468 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautiful, interesting, great people

Disadvantages: the wind

Trieste is a funny old city and the Triestini are mad. Or at least, that’s what many people round here told me when I said I was heading to the border city for the weekend.Of course, I asked for clarification, but was just met with a sad nod of the head or a chuckle. Being assured it was not a malevolent madness, I felt quite comforted by this thought. Anyone the people here think are mad, can’t be all that bad!
In fact, this made the thought of Trieste all the more appealing to me and I wasn't disappointed.
I didn't really know what to expect of the city before I arrived.

Trieste has many 'claims to fame'. She lies by the sea, and for centuries was the main seaport of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, finally attaching herself to Italy after the First World War. She is the capital of the Friuli-Venezia Guilia region, being historically located in and area known as the ‘Guilia’.

Trieste is just a few kilometres inside the Italian border and signs of her Slovenian neighbour are just about everywhere. In a way, you feel you are in Central Europe, the cafes seem more Austrian than Italian, the people friendly (and not in the slightest bit mad to my mind, but then, I’m from London!) but not friendly in the open Mediterranean manner, but a slightly more reserved, curious but not over-curious manner.

I have travelled around many different cities in Italy, but in Trieste, more than most, the history breathes through every pore of the city. I’ve never been anywhere that has felt so close to the first and second world wars, for a start. It almost seems as if the city is still crying for the blood lost on her land. Most of the Italians who died in the First World War, at least, died in Friuli-Venezia Guilia, the autonomous region of which Trieste is the capital and the memorials to the war flood the city.

There is one of the most touching tributes/memorials in the form of a
large ‘Parco della Rimembranza’ clutching the side of the central San Guistanian Hill, which has a mixture of gravestones and monuments to those who died in the wars since 1914. The names are written along with where the person died and where they were from, from as far away as Sicily and Sardinia, and it was quite heartbreaking to stroll around, but more touching was the fact that some of the tombstones had fresh flowers, so people were still coming to remember their own family members.

Back on top of the San Guistanian Hill, is the old Roman Forum and the Cathedral. This is reached by quite a long walk up a steep hill, but is definitely worth the effort, not least because walking there takes you through the heart of the old city, which, itself, is a revelation. The castle is also situated next to the old Roman Forum and there is a small museum, which wasn’t open when I was there, but is devoted to the archeological excavations in the area which uncovered the Forum itself in the 30s.

Back down in the main part of the city the main things to see would be the Piazza dell’Unita’ d’Italia which is the largest piazza in Europe which faces directly onto the sea. The architectural style is here, definitely more Austrian than Italian and it is a perfectly beautiful area when the wind isn’t blowing too strongly.

There are a thousand other places of note which would take too long to highlight so I’ll condense a little and aim for the heart which a guidebook might not tell.

Trieste is famous for the ‘Bora’, a sharp wind that rises from the sea and whips the city up from time to time. I never felt it badly, but I have been assured my many locals that this is because I was lucky! It can get quite chilly here, tucked between mountains and the sea.

Trieste has a very rich cultural life, with many galleries, exhibitions and teatre, and the people in the Tourist Informatio
n Office were some of the friendliest I have ever come across, and gave me loads of free information (as would be expected!) but also postcards and posters and well, I left that office looking a bit overburdened but thinking ‘well, if this is madness, I’ll take it’, somewhat refreshing after Venice, that they seem so welcoming to tourists.

Finally, you can’t go to Trieste or near it without a visit to the Castle Miramare. This is Trieste’s most famous monument/sight, and lies about 6 kms north of the City. It is a beautiful, but small fairytale castle, built by Maximilian of Austria for his wife, and said to be cursed.

It is set within a nature park and the grounds are wonderful to explore and not too large. I didn’t actually go inside the castle, but there is a museum there, and it is set right on the sea.

Trieste is a treat, I could honestly say, she is one of my favourite cities in the world because there is such character there that you can’t help be affected, maybe a little mad, but to me, that’s always been a bonus!

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