GO and visit Trieste, Italy, close to Slovenia, in face of Venice

I lived in Trieste for 37 years from 1955 until 1992 when I moved to Lombardy for family reasons. Even though I am an Istrian refugee from Koper, I have lived in Trieste since the age of 5 and therefore I feel like a Trieste citizen. Trieste is a beautiful city that has only been discovered by tourism in recent years, before only tourists who reached Croatia passed upstream, but very few stopped. Then I don't know what happened, but now tourists arrive from all over the world and many school groups on a school trip. The best thing is to get to know someone from Trieste and let him take you around, for example to an "osmiza" (temporary tavern) in the Trieste Karst, the beautiful plateau which is 400 meters above sea level and where the Trieste people usually go on excursions along the many paths and groves. Today you can cross over into Slovenia because the borders are open and therefore there are more things to see such as the town of Lipiza famous for its horse breeding but also the famous Postojna caves, the Skocijanska Jama and the Predjama castle built inside a panoramic cave. There is also a beautiful cave in the Trieste Karst, the Grotta Gigante which could contain the Basilica of San Pietro of Rome and there is also an external war museum and a karst botanical garden. I would recommend the walk along the "Napoleonica" which goes from the Obelisk of Opicina to Prosecco, the town that gave its name to the famous white sparkling wine. From here you can enjoy a splendid view of the city and the gulf and it is a point to reach in October to admire the Barcolana, the largest regatta in the Mediterranean which hosts thousands of boats and attracts tourists from all over. Another observation point can be the Marian Temple, pleasantly called "Formagin" due to its shape and which is located on the edge of the Karst plateau. Below, you can see the famous castle of Miramare which is certainly worth a visit and is one of the most popular sites in Italy. It was built around 1860 to become the residence of Maximilian of Habsburg and his wife Charlotte of Belgium. He was the brother of the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph who first appointed him governor of Lombardy Veneto and then head of the Austrian Navy. Maximilian became emperor of Mexico, whose crown was offered to him by Napoleon III. Unfortunately after a few years he was the victim of a revolution and was shot by the rebels. The castle is located at the end of a small peninsula overlooking the Adriatic and the gulf of Trieste and is surrounded by a beautiful park that collects many trees and plants brought from all over the planet. It is also home to a rich marine park, one of the largest in Italy. Some rooms of the castle recall the interior of the ship on which Maximilian used to sail. It is nice to walk the stretch between the castle and the town of Barcola before reaching the center of Trieste. It's a walk of about 4 km and you can meet the famous "topolini""little mice", i.e. the free public bathing establishments where many people from Trieste use to spend the summer, especially young people, but also elderly< There are the rocks which protect the coastal road and which the inhabitants of Trieste are fond of because they use them to relax and dive in addition to the sidewalks which are covered by bathers in the summer. Before the small port of Barcola, there is a beautiful pine forest with a fountain and a more peaceful promenade while the busy road is further away. I recommend taking the beautiful coastal road that goes from the castle to Sistiana by car. It is considered one of the most beautiful coastal roads in the world and halfway along the route there is a natural cave crossed by the road and there are various pitches where you can stop and admire the panorama and the stony beaches below, headquarters of naturist associations. Sistiana has a beautiful bay with a couple of beaches, a famous disco and at the end towards Trieste the tourist village "Mare Piccolo" built inside an old disused quarry. Reminiscent of an Istrian village with villas built on several floors that climb up to the top of the quarry to almost reach the coastal road. There are beaches, cafes, restaurants, guarded parking and a beautiful marina and an indoor swimming pool with heated sea water. On the other side, going up the winding road of the bay of Sistiana, you arrive at the splendid Rilke path which, through a panoramic route, bordered by a campsite and a pine forest, arrives near the castle of Duino, built in the fourteenth century, another attraction of the province of Trieste. It is a castle owned by the princes Thurm und Taxis (della Torre and Tasso) related to all the royals of Europe which in the past hosted many celebrities including the poet Rainer Maria Rilke who wrote his poems during his stay "Duino Elegies. You can visit various rooms, full of evidence of the centenary history. Not to be missed: Palladio's Scala, a masterpiece of architecture, the piano where Liszt played and the extraordinary panorama of the gulf. The small port of Duino is also worth a visit, there is a small beach with a bathing establishment and a restaurant where you can eat excellent fish dishes. For several years, the castle housed the "United World College" (now moved to the village)which was attended by students from all continents with English teaching. In central Trieste, the main attraction is Piazza Unità d'Italia which is one of the largest squares on the sea, second after that of San Marco in Venice. The square houses the Town Hall building, the Generali building, the Trieste insurance company with the famous "Caffè degli Specchi" on the ground floor, the Prefecture building with a beautiful facade, the Gran Duchi d'Aosta hotel and the former Lloyd building Trieste which today houses offices of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region. I recommend the panoramic walk on the Molo Audace which allows a view of the banks and of the various hills on which part of the city is built. You can walk along the Banks to the left passing in front of the building of the maritime station which housed the passengers who departed with the ships to the various continents, above all America. In front you can see the statue of the Capodistrian martyr Nazario Sauro. Continuing on, you come across the former fish market, now an exhibition centre, the Sea Museum and the Eataly restaurant before arriving at the tourist port with various boats. On the other side to the right is the Verdi theatre, a minor copy of the La Scala theater in Milan, the Tommaseo café, one of the most spectacular which was a meeting place for intellectuals including the Trieste writer Italo Svevo, creator of the modern psychological novel and his friend and discoverer James Joyce who lived in Trieste for several years, the Greek orthodox church of S. Nicolò and Palazzo Carciotti, once headquarters of the Port Authority, the Hotel de la Ville now owned by Fincantieri, Ship Building Company. Finally we arrive at the Grand Canal and the Ponterosso with the Church of S.Antonio Taumaturgo and the spectacular Serbian-Orthodox church of S.Spiridione with its blue domes. Continuing to the right you arrive in the vast pedestrian area, Corso Italia which houses various shops before the large and central Piazza Goldoni which on the left houses the Sandrinelli gallery and the spectacular Giants staircase which leads to the hill of San Giusto. San Giusto is the patron saint of Trieste and the hill is absolutely worth a visit for the medieval castle with the interesting museum, the ruins of the Roman forum and the beautiful Romanesque cathedral. From the hill of San Giusto you can admire the panorama of part of the city and the Trieste poet Umberto Saba and his poetry come to mind "Trieste has a surly grace If he likes it, he's like a sour and voracious bad boy, with blue eyes and too big hands to give a flower; like a love with jealousy" Below is the old city, now restored with various pleasant streets such as via Cavana at the end of which you reach a square that houses a garden, the civic library, the building of the Nautical Institute and behind it the G.R. Commercial Technical Institute. Carli I attended and where I obtained my diploma in accountancy back in 1969. On the other side there is the Palazzo dell'Anagrafe, the Baroque church of Santa Maria Maggiore and a small Romanesque church, the Questura with the facing and interesting Roman Theater discovered by chance in the 1930s. Going along Corso Italia to the right, which houses banks, department stores and various shops, you arrive at the central Piazza Goldoni, turning left you reach the wide central artery, i.e. via Carducci which you have to go up to the arcades of Chiozza to turn right and enter one of the living rooms of the city, viale XX Settembre, home to many bars, ice cream parlors and some cinemas. It was once the place where young people from Trieste used to take an evening walk on their way back from the Barcola to eye each other and then stop in one of the many bars to taste an ice cream and "cuddle" passers-by. I don't know if it still lasts today because in my last visit to Trieste, it seemed to me devoid of the enamel of the past. It seems that today the young people of Trieste choose the pedestrian street near the tourist port and not far from the Civic Library, today full of bars and restaurants and has also become a meeting place at night. Another visit not to be forgotten is the Antico Caffè San Marco in via Battisti, 18, a parallel to Viale XX Serttembre which has hosted the scenes of many films. Trieste has been the location chosen by many directors of films and screenplays such as the recent television production "La Porta Rossa" which showed an unusual, dark and gloomy Trieste, but this to make the screenplay of the dramatic series better. Trieste, on the other hand, is a sunny and radiant city, not only for the maritime climate (apart from a few days when the bora wind blows and some winter frosts that are now increasingly rare). The people of Trieste are very cheerful and lively, they love to laugh and joke, sometimes even heavily, but it's all a game that the "foreigners" don't understand and sometimes get angry. I know something about this as I live in Lombardy and that I had to change my Trieste attitude so as not to make enemies of all the serious and touchy Lombards. Continuing on, one reaches the Politeama Rossetti on one side, the second theater in the city after the Teatro Verdi. Trieste is a city which has a rich and active cultural life with concerts, ballets, comedies and dramas, operas, the operetta festival and even a film festival. On the other, the Public Garden, one of the few parks-gardens in the city with a lovely lake with swans and the statues of many intellectuals from Trieste, For church buffs, Trieste has a beautiful and original evangelical church behind the imposing Palazzo delle Poste and the largest Jewish synagogue in Italy in via Crispi, a crossroads of the central via Carducci. There are also interesting museums with rich collections such as the Revoltella museum and the Sartorio. Another park is that of the Remembrance on the Colle di San Giusto which can be reached by climbing the Scala dei Giganti from Piazza Goldoni, in the midst of green meadows and a panoramic road, there are memorial stones and karst stones with the names of those killed during the two world wars. The bronze monument dedicated to the fallen from Trieste is impressive. For anyone visiting Trieste for at least a few days, I strongly recommend a hike in Val Rosandra, a deep gorge crossed by the stream of the same name which forms pools of water where you can cool off in the summer. There is a small lake, a waterfall, a small church, a scree, a long path upstream that leads to the village of Bottazzo with the border facing it and which once housed an inn where you could also drink a special red wine and eat some specialties from Trieste. Triestini love to walk this path, leaving the car near Bagnoli della Rosandra. Some enthusiasts go to climb along the rocky ridges of the gorge. Many people from Trieste also love to visit the caves of which the Carso is rich. The karst phenomenon includes sinkholes (vast holes that open in the plateau), caves with stalagtites and stalagmites of incomparable beauty, limestone rock and the enigmatic underground river Timavo which at a certain point sinks and reappears in S.Giovanni del Timavo , after Duino near the Vallone road which you take to reach Gorizia and also in the direction of Monfalcone, the bisiac city "bis acquae" that is between the two rivers Isonzo and Tagliamento, famous for the impressive shipyards that build the cruise ships that everyone envies us and that once were also in Trieste (San Marco shipyard). In Trieste fish is eaten very well especially in the restaurants along the banks, the "brodeto de pesse" and the "risotto de mar" are excellent and then, in some buffets, such as the famous "da Bepi S'ciavo" in Piazza della Borsa , in the City not far from Piazza Unità, you can taste specialties based on boiled pork and sauerkraut. Another Trieste specialty is the jota, a soup with potatoes, beans and sour sauerkraut. The Presniz sweets (from Preis der Prinzessin or Princess Sissi's prize) the Putizza and at Easter the Pinza are delicious. On the Carso it is absolutely worth frequenting some "osmizza" where you can eat excellent cured meats and cheeses, pastry cream, drinking new wine in a simple but absolutely pleasant and cheerful atmosphere. The thing I miss most about Trieste is precisely this conviviality with friends and the laughter made during the afternoons and evenings spent in the "osmizze" or in the Karst restaurants in Basovizza, Padriciano, Rupingrande, Samatorza, etc… You eat well and spend even less beyond the border and fish also in Muggia, the beautiful Istrian town about 20 km from Trieste and the only one on the peninsula still remaining in Italian territory. Muggia hosts a famous carnival related to that of Venice. There are about ten companies competing to win the annual trophy. I too participated for a few years with friends parading for the Lampo company, the only one based outside Muggia, in a small village above the city. If you have time, I recommend visiting the Venetian-style Koper or Capodistria in italian, the city where I was born before moving at 5 to Trieste across the border, Isola of Istria, the city of Nino Benvenuti, the famous boxeur, world and Olimpia champion and above all Piran, the city of the violinist Tartini with the beautiful square that houses his statue and is surrounded at the top by ancient walls, with a small port central and then the nearby and modern Portoroz with its impressive hotel-casinos and a beautiful sandy beach and large marina. On the other side, after Monfalcone, after 30 km you can reach the beautiful ancient city of Grado with its pine forest and sandy beaches and nearby Aquileia with a basilica full of mosaics and Roman archaeological ruins. Go and visit Trieste, you will like it, try to get to know the nice and crazy people of Trieste and if a bora day happens to you, don't be frightened, it is not as deadly as you think, it also brings joy-