The city of Trieste has prospered thanks to its geographical location, its port, and the trade relations associated with it. For this reason alone, it was of great importance to the Habsburg Monarchy. To this day, it has lost none of its appeal.
We cross the famous Piazza dell’Unità d’Italia (Square of Italian Unity) and admire both the magnificent buildings surrounding it—the Palazzo del Municipio (City Hall), the Grand Hotel Duchi d’Aosta, and the historic Café degli Specchi (Mirror Café)—as well as the view of the adjacent harbor. Immediately, we feel a sense of harmony—as if we were right in the heart of the city, yet also out on the open sea, riding the waves of the Adriatic.
The Port of Trieste is one of the most important seaports on the Adriatic. As a free port, it enjoys special customs status.
Writers and Cafés
We stroll along the Canale Grande, which once allowed large merchant ships to unload directly in the city center. Today, however, only small fishing boats anchor there. At the Ponte Rosso, we unexpectedly encounter James Joyce, one of the city’s most significant writers.
The artist Nino Spagnoli created the bronze sculpture, which the city council commissioned to mark the 100th anniversary of the Irish writer’s arrival (2004). Engraved on the pedestal are the words “my soul is in Trieste.” We like them very much.
For Joyce and other writers such as Umberto Saba, Italo Svevo, Gabriele d’Annunzio, Kafka, and Rilke, the historic cafés—the most significant of which still stand today—were places of gathering and conversation. The oldest of these traditional coffeehouses, the Antico Café Thomaseo, which has been in existence since 1830, exudes elegance with its stucco ceilings and walls, a feeling further enhanced by the tables in the dining room set with white damask, placemats, and silverware. Since it is not far from our hotel, the James Joyce—a charming, unpretentious establishment—it becomes our favorite café.
Every now and then, we’re overcome by a Trieste attitude—or is it already a coffee addiction?—as we stand at the counter in the Antico Café Torinese on Piazza della Borsa, enjoying an espresso while admiring the magnificent chandelier and the ceiling frescoes.
Trieste was part of the Danube Monarchy from 1382 to 1918. No wonder a coffeehouse culture modeled after Vienna’s was able to flourish here. In the 19th century, there are said to have been around fifty cafés here. The historic coffeehouses are hugely popular with both locals and tourists.
At the Antico Cafèe San Marco, we immerse ourselves in a world of Art Nouveau. Mirrored walls reflect the light from the floral wall and ceiling lamps. They lend a pleasant liveliness to the scene with its typical interior and guests. It is a feast for the eyes. You don’t know where to look first.
Sentiero Rilke – the Rilke Path
When we get off the bus in Sistiana, a pretty coastal town north of Trieste, two friendly Italians ask us in German if we want to go to the Sentiero. Is it written on our foreheads? After all, the Duino Elegies are tucked away in our backpacks. It starts back there on the right at the tourist information office, they say. We walk along the main street and turn off at the indicated spot. And already the full splendor unfolds before our eyes: the Gulf of Trieste, the sea, the bay and the marina of Sistiana, and high above, the Karst. After a few steps along the narrow, roughly two-kilometer-long cliff path of the Sentiero Rilke—built in honor of the poet—we catch sight of Duino Castle from an almost overhanging viewing platform.
Rilke began his Duino Elegies here in 1912 when he accepted an invitation from the castle’s mistress, Marie von Thurn und Taxis. The princess was regarded as an art-loving and knowledgeable patron. At the beginning of the twentieth century, she turned the castle, built on the cliffs with a breathtaking view, into a popular meeting place for prominent writers, artists, and musicians.
“Behold, we do not love like flowers that bloom for a single year…. Oh girl, this: that we did not love within ourselves a single thing, a future…” One feels as though one can sense the “Rilke sound” with its linguistic sensitivity, which strives for the unattainable. Within it, spaces are opened up that harbor not only what is long past but also the innermost depths of the human soul. They point to the fractures in humanity caused by modernity and the experiences of World War I. These are the great questions of becoming and passing away, of transience and death, of beauty and decay.
Just as the Elegies interweave the long-gone past with the present and the future, so too does the castle, with its interior and its geographical location, tell the story of a once-glorious past.
The castle was built on the walls of a Roman outpost in the 16th century. From the tower, which towers over everything, one can let the gaze wander over the nature reserve of the Duino cliffs, to the Austino shipyard, and further south to Miramare Castle.
The poet must have been intoxicated by the natural beauty surrounding him, but also by the generosity of his hostess, to whom he dedicated one of his elegies. Yet, despite the overwhelming beauty, he moved on—always in search of change. “For beauty is nothing but the beginning of the terrible, which we can just barely endure,” he writes in his first elegy. It was completed
The work, which ranks among his greatest literary successes, was completed at Mussot Castle above Sierre in the Swiss canton of Valais. There, in solitude, the final years of his life were virtually fueled by a fulfilling creative frenzy.
Via Napoleonica
The next day, we set out on the Strada Napoleonica, another beautiful scenic route. It begins at the obelisk in Opicina, a small suburb of Trieste. You can reach Opicina from the city center via a historic railway. Unfortunately, however, we had to forgo this popular mode of transport due to repair work. On the path, which winds its way between the Karst and the coast at an elevation of 350 meters, you can explore the Mediterranean vegetation of the Trieste Karst, enjoy the view over the Gulf of Trieste, and on the other side marvel at the skill of the climbers scaling the steep rock faces of the Karst with acrobatic grace.
In Prosecco, we leave the Strada Napoleonica and turn toward Controvello. A path leads us past a small pond with ducks, through fallow vineyards, and past a cleared olive grove. The forest grows increasingly enchanted. As we descend the steep stone steps, it feels as though we are descending into the underworld. But at the bottom, we reach the former princely station of Miramar.
It was built in 1857 by Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian of Austria, the younger brother of Emperor Franz Joseph, to provide state guests with a
to ensure a comfortable journey to and from the site. After crossing the disused tracks, we finally arrive at the Miramare Castle park. What a contrast between the pristine natural landscape on the one hand and the harmoniously designed landscape architecture on the other.
Miramare Castle
The castle, with its white limestone façade, sits high on a rocky promontory in the Bay of Grignano, about seven kilometers from Trieste. It is surrounded by a park spanning over twenty hectares that—as one might expect, given that the estate is called Miramare, meaning “sea view”—opens out toward the sea.
Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian of Austria had it built between 1856 and 1860 after being appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Austrian Navy by his brother, Emperor Franz Joseph I, whose most important port was Trieste. After the Archduke’s death in 1867, it served as a summer retreat for the imperial family. No wonder that the well-frequented castle bookstore also offers numerous, ever-popular souvenirs of Empress Sissi.
Part of the park is laid out as an Italian garden with geometric flowerbeds, where tulips, crocuses, and daffodils are now unfolding their colorful splendor in the spring. In the other section, designed in the English style, one finds not only native Mediterranean vegetation such as laurel bushes, cypresses, myrtles, and elderberries but also exotic plants.
We settle in at the tea pavilion for a coffee break and enjoy a delicious espresso and the sweeping view of the sea before heading back to Trieste.
Suse Rabel-Harbering