"Overlooked Adriatic Beauty" a Trieste Travel Page by rexvaughan

Trieste is one of those cities you don't hear much about but, for some reason, had always appealed to me as a somewhat 'exotic' location. I was not disappointed. It is a large and bustling city with a long and strategic history which has contributed to it being such a ethnically diverse and cosmopolitan city. Over the centuries it has been under the rule of Rome, Venice, Austria, Germany, Italy, Yugoslavia and probably some others. Even early in the 20th C the population was only about 65% Italian with 6% Germanic and 27% Slavic.

It really didn't become a part of modern Italy until 1954 when the Free Territory of Trieste was dissolved at which point Trieste reverted back to Italy while the southern part of the territory went to Yugoslavia. It is not much more than a stone's throw now from Trieste to Slovenia.

One of the reasons for Trieste's checkered history in terms of who was in control is its location on the Adriatic. During the Middle Ages it evolved into an important shipping and trade center. It even had a period of just under 2 centuries as a free port in the 18th and 19th Centuries.. It was also an important ship building center in the Austro-Hungarian empire.

One of the surprises in this highly under rated city is the Grand Canal. It serves now as a place to moor small craft but in the past was a place for sailing vessels to unload. I think it may have been used by the local fishermen to offload their daily catch.