Day 3: a trip to...Trieste

 

Hello travellers from all over the world! Hope you are fine today.
Ready for a new trip? I would like to introduce one of my favourite Italian city: Trieste, the capital of the region Friuli Venezia Giulia, East of Venice, close to the boarder with Slovenia.

210,000 people live in this town on the Gulf of Trieste, in a position of croassroads of Germanic, Latin and Slavic culture. An important centre in the period of the Habsburg Kingdom, being the fourth biggest city of the empire after Vienna, Budapest and Prague and the only one having a port.
Ruled by the US army after the Second War till 1954, when it was finally given back to Italy, todays is a very mixed destination, with lots cultural centres, foreing languages school and an important kind of bilinguism, mainly Italian but also Slovenian.

Town of great poets and writers, like Umberto Saba or Italo Svevo, here born but also good place to spread new culture, like English literature with Professor James Joyce or French literature with Mr. Stendhal as a French consul in the city.

The main square of Trieste is Piazza Unità d'Italia, one of the largest squares of Europe with direct access by few steps to the Adriatic Sea. Here, there are some of the most important and beautiful buildings of the city which date back different period but mainly concern the Habsburg period.

Not far from here, only 5 minutes walking it is asy to get into the old Jewisj district with good restaurants and the best antique stores of the city.

Don't forget that the foundation of the city was during the Roman Empire and the oldest part of the town is on the top of a hill, called Saint Justus, with ruins of original Roman buldings and where today you can visit the Cathedrak of Trieste, built in 14th century with Gotic style and wonderful Byzantine mosaiques in the interior. 

A very sad place in the city is the so called Risiera di San Sabba, a place that just is worth a visit in order not to forget history. It was a Nazi Concentration camp during the Second War, used especially as a transit camp for thousands political or religious prisoners on the way to Auscwhitz. It was built in 1913 and firstly used as a rice-husking facility (rice is riso in Italian).

A good manner to leave the city with a wonderful visit is the Castle of Miramare (from Spanish look at athe sea), built in 1856 by Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian for his wife. It was hence one of the Habsburg residence all around Euopea, distinguished by nice gardens with also tropical trees imported by Mexico, conquerd by Ferdinand himself. Today it shows some of the best view on the Bay of Trieste with overllok towards the Slovenian territory.


As always, I'd like to give you some suggestions about food and wine. The city is on the coast but sorrounded by foothills and mountains. For this reason, its kitchen is perfectly mixed with seafood and meat. I reccommend to try the Prosciutto di San Daniele, a variety of Italian prosciutto crudo, ideal for any aperitif or Formaggio di grotta, cheese matured in local caves. Very nice Risotto with seafood and to end something that belongs to Slavic culture: the Jusgoslavian Cevapcici, a grill dish of minced meat, today very popular in all Italian North-east.

Well, at the very end taste one of the several quality of Friulan grappas but for wine, order one of my favourite Italian kinds: the Refoscolo dal Peduncolo Rosso. The grape is the refosco and the production is mainly limited to Friuli Venezia Giulia. Deeply coloured it has flavours of plums and almond notes.
Perfect with any kind of local dish composed with meat or pastas or prosciutti.