ENCHANTING TRIESTE

British writers have had their love affair with the city, too - after all, it was to Trieste that Sir Richard Burton, most dangerous of all 19th-century diplomats, whose sexual writing had scandalised Victorian England, was dispatched as consul in 1872.

The translator of an unexpurgated version of The Arabian Nights, Burton died here in 1890. His wife burned the two volumes of his translation of The Scented Garden in an effort to protect his memory.

Sigmund Freud, who also lived here, would have understood - as might Lord Lucan, who is said to have worked in the city's aquarium after his disappearance in 1974.

Escape is another of the themes at the very heart of this city. Concentration camp commandant Adolf Eichmann escaped by way of Trieste after the Nazi defeat.

But on a lighter note, composer Joseph Haydn named a symphony after the city, novelist Joseph Conrad wrote admiringly about its dockers and Thomas Mann wrote part of Buddenbrooks at the Hotel de Ville.

However, another of the city's great attractions lies in the character of the people. They have a gentleness that is rare in cities.

Joyce maintained he had never met such kindness anywhere else, and composer Gustav Mahler called them 'terribly nice'.

Built on the rugged hillside above its beautiful port and the dramatic Adriatic coastline, Trieste is famous for it's marvelous seafood and Vienna-like coffeehouses.

But there is much more to enjoy in this marvelous mediterranean city which was once a part of the Austro-Hungarian Hapsburg Empire.

The city has several museums, theatres and places of interest all within easy reach of each other. The food in the area is fantastic with numerous cafes and restaurants offering an abundance of seafood, local cheeses, excellent wines and rich coffees.

"Trieste on an autumn evening suggests the work of those English Victorian painters who specialized in seaports at the end of the day, with pale gaslight shining on wet pavements, and pub windows dimly illuminated."

 If you can find it on your map, it’s worth the trouble getting to, though once you’re there you may never want to leave.

CRUISE CALLS IN TRIESTE  

Costa Crociere

Thomson Cruises 

Cunard Line

Seadream Yacht Club

Hebridean Island Cruises

Louis Cruise Lines

Silversea Lines

Holiday Kreuzfahrten

Crystal Cruises

Costa Crociere will use Trieste as a homeport for one of its ships next summer. The ship, as yet unnamed, will depart from the Adriatic port every week on a seven-day itinerary still to be finalised.

‘Every year we try to offer our guests new ports of call of cultural, artistic and naturalistic interest: Trieste is a fascinating and beautiful city that certainly meets all these requirements. In addition, because of its geographic location and history, Trieste is a privileged access port for many countries: besides Italy, we are also focusing on Germany and East Europe with regard to our company’s future development,’ commented Pier Luigi Foschi, chairman and ceo of Costa.

TOUR OF CURCHES AND RELIGIONS 

 Being a melting pot of races and religions, Trieste has inevitably become a centre with many creeds, many religions. In the Borgo Teresiano is the Neobyzantine-styled Serbian Orthodox Chiesa di San Spiridione (San Spiridione's Church), built in 1868 near the impressive and sober Catholic Chiesa di Sant'Antonio Taumaturgo (1840), a Neoclassical hexastyle construction by Pietro Nobile which, in the upper part of its façade, has a balaustrade decorated with statues by Antonio Bosa, from the school of Canova. The Greek Orthodox Chiesa di San Nicolò in Riva The Novembre dates back to the late XVIII century. Though in the Neoclassical style, it is extremely simple outside and wonderfully decorated inside. The Evangelical church of Largo Panfili, built on a design by architect Zimmermann from Elbing about 1874, is in the Neogothic style. Then in Via San Francesco is the Tempio Israelitico (Israelite Temple), finished in 1912. It is based on Syrian patterns and is oriented along the East-West axis, in accordance with the Jewish tradition. It is one of the most important Israelite temples in Europe.

While living in Trieste, Joyce wrote most of the stories in Dubliners, turned Stephen Hero into A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and began Ulysses. Echoes and influences of Trieste are rife throughout Ulysses and Finnegans Wake.

Mediterranean Smoothness

The Rilke's Promenade

Astonishing, and  easily attained views of the coast await. From the piazza ask directions for the coastal road, where before  Duino  there's an entrance through the trees to the Sentiero Rilke, a path named after the early twentieth-century German poet Rainer Maria Rilke, who was the best-known walker of this cliff path.

Rainer Maria Rilke's great cycle of ten elegies named after the castle on the Adriatic had its inception, according to Rilke's host at Castle Duino, Maria von Thurn und Taxis-Hohenlohe, on the morning of January 21, 1912. Interrupted by the First World War, the cycle of ten elegies was completed only a decade later.
The two great complementary poem cycles, Duino Elegies and Sonnets to Orpheus, are not only the result of an extraordinary kind of contact with the unseen world; they are an attempt to understand that world, and to understand it in its holistic relationship to the visible. tangible, world. 

According to National Geographic this is one of the most beautiful Promenades of the world.

Running on the top of a perpendicular shoreless cliff on the sea and reaching the castle of Duino is a meaningful example of the Mediterranean smoothness.
The path has been named after the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, who wrote his Elegies to Duino (Duineser Elegien) during his long staying in the castle.A footpath along the white cliffs, "towering against the sea, like foothills of human existence," as the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke put it.

>> WALKS  WITH A VIEW ALONG THE TRIESTINE RIVIERA

THE GIANT GROTTO

At Borgo Grotto Gigante, just below Villa Opicina, there is a huge cavern filled with some amazing ‘organ pipe’ formations and tall columns of stalagmites. These caves are known as Grotto Gigante or Giant Cave and are open every day apart from Mondays. In July and August, the caves Are open seven days a week.

First open to the public on July 5, 1908, it's the largest cave visited by tourists in the world, and it is managed by the oldest speleological association ever (Società Alpina delle Giulie).

 But there is one more record: two geodetic pendulums, measuring 105 metres in lenght, hang from the top, and they are the longest in the world. The vast central space might contain St. Peter's cathedral !!!

Owing to the heighth, falling water drops disintegrate, giving shape to the characteristic 'dish-pile' stalagmites.
A new footroute allowsthe visitor to admire the cave from unexpected and fascinating points of view. In the speleological museum by the cave, rocks and minerals typical of the Carso and its caves are exhibited, as well as animalsand prehistoric objects found in karstic caves, and old and modern speleological equipment.

The Mediterranean climate  physically manifests itself through the presence of olive trees for they only grow in areas with hot summers and mild winters. You will notice that the production of olive oil is  important  and for this reason olive groves are numerous. You may even find one in your garden.

Most of the year, the coastline enjoys a mild and sunny Trieste's climate. In winter, it rarely freezes, though it can rain quite a lot in March-April and October-November. One important reason why Trieste's climate is beneficial, is that it is seldom, or never, cold and wet at the same time. When the weather is cold, it is with north wind, and the air is dry. When the air is moist, south wind prevails, and the temperature is mild. Sunscreen is a necessity in the hot, dry Mediterranean summer.

Average highs rise to around 80 F (27 C) by June, July and August, the warmest months. Heat waves can send the mercury into the 90s (32 C), although stifling heat is rare, thanks to the cooling effect of the sea breeze.

Autumn has generally pleasant temperatures, but rainfall begins to pick up markedly. October and November are normally the rainiest months of the year. Winters are generally mild and sunny.
This pleasant weather on the Mediterranean is sometimes interrupted by very changeable cold and blustery weather brought by a northerly wind called the Mistral in French Provence and Bora on the Adriatic.

The Northern wind can bring unseasonably cold weather on the Mediterranean for a few days in Winter and early spring.

>> THE CLIMATE OF THE TRIESTINE RIVIERA

GRADO

  THE ISLAND OF    SUN

Grado, an island in the middle of a lagoon connected to the mainland by two bridges, has two faces: that of the modern and well-known seaside resort, with its hotels, long avenues full of elegant shops and carefully cleaned and tidy beaches, and the older part, the historic centre with its small houses, century old churches and narrow streets and which immediately remind you of Venice's smaller canals and alleys.

>>  Sunny Island of Grado

 SHOPPING TIME 

There are about 4500 shops, 6 department stores and  2 huge  shopping malls in downtown Trieste.

The Borgo Teresiano - the grid-pattern, neo-classical city center named after Empress Maria Theresa - is where Trieste's uninspiring shopping opportunities are concentrated. In the Old Town forget about shoes and clothes and concentrate on coffee and second-hand books - two commodities which the city specializes. One which is so famous as to feature on the city council tourist trail is the Libreria Antiquaria Umberto Saba in Via San Nicolas 30. Set up by the city's most famous poet in 1919, it still retains the musty, order-through-chaos atmosphere of a true bibliophile's den. James Joyce lived with wife Nora and two kids in a flat above, though he and Saba never met. 

Even if you haven't got the espresso machine with you, a bag of freshly-ground coffee is a great traveling companion; try the CremCaffè, an old-fashioned torrefazione (coffee roaster) on Piazza Goldoni, where you can also pick up a set of limited edition Illy coffee cups (the design changes every year). The old town, between Piazza Grande and the hill of San Giusto, is dotted with second-hand bookshops. 

During the year, there are numerous Markets and Fairs in the city. On the third Sunday of every month, the cities love for antiques reflected in the coming together of over 60 or so antique shops, jewelers and second-hand dealers offering Art Nouveau and Secession objects and furniture. Take a stroll through the street markets and pick up a few bargains!

Shopping Malls

Dont' miss a visit to The  Giulia (via Giulia) with over 60 shops bars and restaurant , and the Torri d'Europa (via Svevo) with over 120 shops, department stores, boutiques, cinemas and restaurants.

Like Marseilles and Miami, Trieste is not a city to which you go to see much of anything in particular but rather just to be there, to experience the pulse and rhythm of the place.

Department stores and a lot of shops and boutiques are open 7 days a week  generally  9 AM - 21 PM 

DUINO : CASTLES ON THE SEA

 Nearby Attractions

TOURIST ATTRACTIONS IN THE NEIGHBORHOODS

To get to know one of Italy’s most versatile regions, a "small digest of the universe" as the writer Ippolito Nievo defined Friuli-Venezia Giulia.

This varied region is characterized by different landscapes which go from the smooth hills of Collio to the picturesque Trieste coastline, from the middle-European architecture of Trieste to the graceful Venetian architecture of Udine and by different cultures, heritage of various invasions which marked history.

This variety can be savoured also by its rich cuisine together with its world known top white wines and its outstanding red ones.

The Castle's Hill 

Upon the hill that dominate Trieste there are San Giusto Castle and San Giusto Cathedral. The Castle was built in 2 centuries,(1470 and 1630). In it is possible to notice the round Venetian bastion (1508-9), the Hoyos-Lalio bastion and the Pomis, or "Bastione fiorito" dated 1630. At present the Castle - in which several rooms, including the Sala Caprin, are open to the public - houses a Museum displaying historical weapons and is regularly used for the staging of exhibitions, events and, in the summer, open-air shows. A walk on the Castle ramparts and bastions gives a complete panorama of the city of Trieste. Next to it there is the Cathedral. His construction started in the 6th, was destroyed in the Lombard invasion. From the 9th to the 11th centuries two basilicas were erected on the ruins of the old church, the first dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption and the second to St. Just (San Giusto).

In the 14th century the 2 basilicas were joined by means of the demolition of one nave of either basilica and the construction of a simple asymmetrical façade, dominated by a delicately-worked Gothic rosette, as ornate as the new bell-tower, using the Romanesque stones found on the site and friezes of arms.