Trieste Travel Guide

A diverse, energetic port city on the Italian-Slovenian border, Trieste is profoundly Italian and enticingly international. It is also the gateway to the Friuli wine region. Part of Austria until 1920, the city still retains much of its central European flavor in its stoic city monuments, hearty cuisine, and enterprising spirit. Even the language is different; people speak a dialect called Triestine, and some still speak Slovenian.

Trieste’s history dates back to the third millennium BC when an Indo-European tribe settled it. Several other people groups passed by before the city was taken under the Roman Empire’s wing in 177 BC. Centuries passed, and in the Middle Ages, Trieste’s city fathers requested that they be subject to the Duke of Austria if they could retain a certain level of autonomy. Trieste became a free port within Austria, and this arrangement was kept until the end of the 18th century when French troops occupied it during the Napoleonic Wars. Afterward, it briefly recuperated its former status, becoming a fashionable destination for artists in the early 20th century. But after World War II, the irredentist movement (which sought to unify all lands inhabited by historically Italian peoples) successfully joined Trieste and the rest of the Venezia Giulia with Italy. The city had one final burst of independent spirit from 1947 to 1954, when it became an independent state. Still, it eventually returned to the fold and again became an Italian territory.

Today, Trieste is the capital of Friuli-Venezia Giulia and serves as a substantial commercial and leisure port on the Adriatic Sea. Hemmed in by the glistening blue of the Adriatic and the lush green of the hillsides that rise just beyond the city center, Trieste enjoys an enviable setting that has made it popular with visitors from across Europe. Its history is visible in its Roman ruins, ancient narrow streets, and imposing castles, yet the city is also confidently modern, with a glib yacht port and stately boulevards.