Once a haven for writers, the Italian port city has a vibrant art scene and good restaurants
As the great seaport of the Habsburg empire, Trieste was a “thriving ethnic, financial and cultural crossroads”, dubbed “Europiccola” (Europe in miniature) by James Joyce. Then came the First World War, and the grand geopolitical shifts of the 20th century, which left it ever more isolated – hemmed in on three sides by the Iron Curtain, in the far northeast of Italy. In recent years, however, it has enjoyed a marked cultural resurgence, says Lee Marshall in the FT. The melancholy and nostalgia that Jan Morris evoked in her book Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere are still present, but a “vibrant” art scene, fine new restaurants and stylish new hotels have brought fresh vitality to the city’s majestic old streets and squares.
