Trieste’s nature immediately leaps to the attention of the most curious tourist: a frontier city, where Mediterranean and Central European traits mingle, with a mixture of architectural genres – Neoclassical, Art Nouveau and Baroque being the most common – ranging from buildings of Roman origin to those in the Habsburg style.

The coexistence of so many varieties is also represented by the colour contrasts that characterise the morphology of the city, lying between the autumnal reds of the Karst vegetation and the blue of the sea that sweeps over the Molo Audace on days when the Bora wind gusts up to 180 km/h.

A fascination that captured the interest of many writers who lived in Trieste, above all Umberto Saba, Italo Svevo and James Joyce.
The literary echoes of these frequentations can still be felt in the centre’s elegant historic cafés, ideal for a break after tackling one of the many traditional tourist routes.
For example, the famous ‘Tram de Opicina’ (a historic tramway in operation since 1902) leads from Piazza Oberdan to what the people of Trieste call the ‘Napoleonica’ path, suitable for a walk with a panoramic view of the Gulf of Trieste.

The most famous historical sites include the central Piazza Unità d’Italia, one of the largest in Europe, and Faro della Vittoria, an imposing memorial to the war dead.
The historical buildings in the surroundings such as the Miramare Castle are also worth visiting.