Trieste is one of Europe’s most enchanting cities - a crossroad of cultures and languages and a melting-pot of faces and lifestyles stumbling down from the Adriatic Sea. Almost entirely surrounded by Slovenia, the city in the most eastern region of northern Italy looks isolated from the Italian peninsula, but it is truly in Italy, hugging a part of the sea called the Gulf of Trieste. The city preserves its own unique border town history and idiosyncrasies, including a wide, beloved beach famous for its dividing wall that separates men from women as they sunbathe. In Trieste you’ll find beauty, art, good food, and excellent wines. Whether sea, city, or mountains are your pleasure, Trieste offers it all. Generation after generation, the warm and friendly community has developed overlooking a wild sea, chased by the unstoppable Bora wind and surrounded by stunning but impervious mountains.
An Imperial History
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Once Trieste was the great seaport of the huge Habsburg Empire. The cosmopolitan city’s language, Italian, has remained since the Habsburg era, while the Triestini dialect is a mélange of Italian, Slovenian, Austrian-German, Croatian and Greek. Trieste was an important center of Italian and Central European culture, Trieste was incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy in 1918 after World War I. After World War II, the city became the capital of the Free Territory of Trieste, remaining so for nine years under an allied military administration, which ended in 1954. Its magnificent waterfront is lined with portentous neoclassical architecture reminiscent of northern European buildings.
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Much of the graceful city-center area north of Corso Italia dates to the 18th-century reign of Empress Maria Theresa, including the photogenic Canal Grande. Reflecting centuries of religious tolerance, here you will also find the mosaic-laden 1868 Serbian Orthodox Santo Spiridione church juxtaposed with the neoclassical 1842 Sant’Antonio Taumaturgo’s one, the largest Catholic church in the city. On the Via Roma bridge stands a life-sized statue of James Joyce, and the Piazza Hortis is home to a similar bronze of the Italian iconic writer Italo Svevo.
Elisabeth of Bavaria, Empress of Austria, nicknamed Sissi, was known as one of the most beautiful and famous women of 19th-century Europe. With her husband, Emperor “Kaiser” Frances Joseph, she visited Trieste’s Miramare Castle 14 times. The stunning castle, perched on a rock overlooking the gulf, remained ever-ready for the royals’ brief stops along the way to their favorite destinations in the South Mediterranean Sea.
Sailing with the Barcolana Regatta
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The autumn season is a lovely time to visit Trieste for what the Guinness World Records calls the world’s “Greatest Sailing Race.” The Barcolana55, officially known as the Barcolana Autumn Cup Regatta, will take place from September 29th to October 8th. Founded in 1969, this is the most romantic and crowded regatta in the world.The famous race initiated by the Yacht Club Società Velica of Barcola and Grignano in Trieste always takes place on the second Sunday of October. In 2019, when the Guinness record was announced, the race had 2,689 boats and over 16,000 sailors on the starting line.The course of the 2023 race will be the same as last year’s edition: a quadrangle with fixed points in the Gulf of Trieste for a total length of 13 nautical miles.
The regatta is a thrilling sight, but there is so much more happening in Trieste at the time. On October 4th to 6th the international Barcolana Sea Summit will meet to raise awareness on the seas’ health and climate change. Barcolana Week will offer fun for all ages on land and sea.
Legends of Trieste
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Irish writer James Joyce lived nearly 16 years in Trieste after first arriving in the Adriatic city in October 1904. This is where he wrote or saw published all of his early works—Chamber Music, Dubliners, Portrait, Exiles, and Giacomo Joyce—and began and wrote significant episodes of Ulysses, a novel that had already begun to change the course of modern literature even before its publication in 1922.
On December 15, 2018, the dream of the waltz became a historic spectacle when 1,598 couples danced in the Piazza Unità d'Italia, Italy’s largest sea-facing piazza. Recorded as the largest waltz in the world, the event broke the record previously held since 2010 by the city of Tuzla in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which had included 1,510 waltzing couples.
A fun little museum found at 9 Via Belpoggio in Trieste tells us about Bora, an honorary citizen of the city. Bora is the impetuous and sudden strong wind that blows on Trieste for several day per year, sometimes reaching an incredible speed of 290 miles per hour. The dramatic natural phenomenon is named after Bora, the young and capricious favorite child of Aeolus, the Greek God of the winds.
At 229 Viale Miramare you’ll discover one of Trieste's most unusual buildings. Known as the Onion Villa for its Russian-looking onion domes, the mansion was built in 1896 by Anton Jakic, a former priest who is said to have abandoned his vows to become a spy for the Tsar.
An Adventure for Your Taste Buds
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The food and wine in Trieste are unique for their eclectic mix of Austrian, Hungarian, Jewish, Slavic, and Asian influences, especially the use of spices and aromas. Among the typical dishes of the province of Trieste we advise you try are Jota, a soup with beans and sauerkraut; plum and potato gnocchi; bread, egg, and ham gnocchi and pork with sauerkraut.
The vineyard-draped hinterland of the karst will show you the real magic of Trieste is dishes like goulash, a soup prepared with onion, meat, and chili. Among the typical Tristini desserts are the Sacher Torte, an Austrian must; apple strudel, Putizza, with its sweet filling of dried fruit and potato Kipfels. Trieste’s excellent wines are worth discovering, namely Teran Karst, Karst Cabernet Sauvignon, Malvasia Karst, and Vitovska Karst.
Barbara Benzoni
Barbara Benzoni was born in Milan and lives between Rome and Tuscany. She is devoted to USA, the land of courage and innovation. She’s Peter's super-lucky mum and Ale's wife. Cinema, art, good food and only beautiful things are the themes of her existence. With a degree in Italian literature and a Masters in Sports Management she can both enjoys books and basketball matches. In 25 years she has been organizing sport events all over the world and she’s been lucky enough to meet the greatest champs ever. Curiosity in everyday life and people are her drivers. Her personal icon is Mohammed Ali : "It's not bragging if you can back it up".