Trieste

A cosmopolitan city with a glorious Habsburg past. It has always been a meeting point for languages, peoples, and religions, giving it a Central European and international soul.

Beautiful and cultured, Trieste is Italy’s most cosmopolitan city. Echoes of its glorious Habsburg past still resonate, and its characteristic blend of languages, peoples, and religions allows one to easily sense its combined Central European and Mediterranean spirit.

The heart of the city is Piazza Unità d’Italia, the most beautiful and symbolic of all its squares. The buildings surrounding it perfectly encapsulate Trieste’s history. However, the most spectacular side of the square is the one facing the sea, where the Molo Audace pier stretches over two hundred meters. From here, the view extends beyond Piazza Unità to the monumental palazzi and the Greek Orthodox Church of San Nicolò on the Trieste Canal Grande (Grand Canal), the center of the neighborhood built under the auspices of Maria Theresa of Austria. The churches in this district testify to the harmonious coexistence of different religions.
In the distance, the white profile of Miramare, the romantic castle of Maximilian and Charlotte of Habsburg, can be glimpsed.

Trieste is also the city of coffee. As a free port for coffee imports since the 18th century, Trieste’s port remains the busiest in the Mediterranean. In Trieste, coffee is intertwined with literature: the city is home to numerous beautiful literary cafés, time-honored coffee houses with a retro charm that were once frequented by great novelists such as James Joyce, Italo Svevo, and Umberto Saba, and are still favored by writers and intellectuals today. Taking a break in one of Trieste’s old cafés is an unmissable ritual, one that even requires learning some special jargon: here, an espresso is called a “nero,” but what on earth is a “gocciato” or a “capo in b”? Find out for yourself; you'll have fun doing it!