Located between the Adriatic and Slovenia, Trieste is a city of contrasts – part southern European part northern. It may be unsure of its national identity, but therein lies its appeal.
Trieste, as the saying goes, is history. This thought occurred to me on a sunny Sunday morning as I walked through the borgo Teresiano, its streets of gigantic baroque buildings laid out in the eighteenth century to gratify the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa. Feeling the awesomeness of the Habsburg buildings, street after street of them, it dawned on me that Europe, at least in terms of its past, was not a union of nations but an old-established family business. Strolling down Trieste's half-deserted imperial thoroughfares, now the marooned remnants of an extinct empire, the thought was followed by the realisation that the city's Austro-Hungarian influence, however imposing, represented barely a month in its evolutionary calendar. Because of its strategic situation at the top of the glittering Adriatic, the last two thousand years had also seen Romans, Goths, Lombards, Byzantines, and Cossacks come and go; not to mention the Venetians (twice), the French (three times), and even, in a brief display of naval swagger, the British. If Europe was a family business, Trieste, all fragments, ghosts and destinies, was its back room.
GETTING THERE
Flight details British Airways has a daily direct (in January three times a week- mon, wed, sat) service from Gatwick to Trieste's Fruili-Venezia Giulia airport. Airport transfers to central Trieste and the railway station by efficient licensed minibus take half an hour and cost L15,000.– about £5. Don't think of relying on the municipal bus service, and Italian taxis are even more expensive on the airport run here than elsewhere in Italy. Go flies to Venice from Stanstead daily. There are train services from Venice to Trieste and a hydrofoil service in the summer months.
WHERE TO EAT AND DRINK
Le Giare
Via San Lazzaro 7 (040 363 649). Small, family run restaurant which feels local, specialising in cold meats and good salads washed down with prosecco
Tre Merli Viale Miramare 42 (0039 040 410884). The antipasti (self-service from a long table) are first-rate; though it calls itself 'trattoria con pizza' this is an outstanding fish restaurant
Cittadicherso Via Cadorna 6 ( 0039 040 366044). More outstanding fish. Slightly pretentious setting, though very comfortable. A wine list with the best of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia growths
Caffe Pasticceria Pirona Largo Barriera Vecchia 12 (0039 040 636046). James Joyce savoured the Austrian cakes and fine wines and (is said to have) conceived the idea for Ulysses here
WHERE TO STAY
Grand Hotel Duchi d'Aosta Piazza Unità d'Italia, 2-1 34121 Trieste (00 39 40 7600011, fax 366092). double room L415,000 per a night. Ask for a room overlooking the piazza, although to see the Adriatic you will need a very long neck. There is also Daneu's Hotel in Opicina, via Nazionale111, Opicina, (0039 040 214214) rebuilt from the summer hideaway enjoyed by the Burtons,and some small family-run hotels in Muggia. The tourist office is at via San Nicolò 20 (0039 040 360333) |
