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Dining in Europe > Trieste It may well be the least industrialised city of the Triveneto region and that with the highest average age in the country; it may also be a city whose mottos are 'no can do', 'leave well enough alone' and 'if it ain't broke why fix it''. It may be - as an erstwhile local newspaper editor put it 'the Naples of the North, minus the creativity of the Neopolitans'. In short, the city may well have many shortcomings. However, this does not necessarily mean that the fiercely conservative city of Trieste does not know how to appreciate fine cuisine and the good life. Historically, Trieste has always been a melting pot of cultures and traditions, stretched out as it is between the sea and the Carso, only several kilometres from the border with Slovenia. The cuisine here has its own unique flavours and characteristics. The cafés and restaurants of central Trieste and the upland plains (the hilly area which lies behind the city) offer typically Central European dishes a fusion of local cuisine and that of Hungary, Austria and the Slavic countries. The people of Trieste are crazy about their food. Take away their factories, nightclubs, football team or amusement park but don't take away their food. Sunday lunches with friends and dinners at the local trattoria (always at reasonable prices) are worth more to them than anything else. In recent years, hordes of tourists have also found this to be true, with a little help from the marketing strategies of the mayor Riccardo Illy (also a successful coffee merchant, capable of selling sackfuls of Arabic coffee all over the world, from the Maldives to Bahrain). Trieste is not really the sort of place you would happen to pass through due to its location in the northernmost corner of Italy. However, there are hundreds of good reasons to come to Trieste, not least for its cuisine. Prepare yourself then, for a brief guided tour of some of the best eateries in the city. If you should find yourself on or around the Piazza dell'Unità d'Italia (the largest seaside square in Europe), pop in to Pepi for a snack. This seemingly unassuming little café has even enjoyed a mention in the New York Times. Here, at any time of day or night, you can try boiled pork, toasted ham sandwiches, sausages with sauerkraut and horseradish and paprika sauces. These can be washed down with either beer or Terrano - a full-flavoured red wine from the Carso region which even has a street named after it. Prices here are relatively low. Alternatively, you could try Tommaseo or Specchi - two of Triestes oldest cafés. These both have elegant lounge areas and warm, friendly atmospheres. A word of warning: if you order a capuccino in these parts, you will get what is known in the rest of Italy as as caffè macchiato caldo, served in a small cup with frothy milk. If however, you would prefer to combine elegance with tradition and modernity with delicious flavours, you should try the Subantrattoria which offers gastronomic delights for carnivores. Even Pope John Paul II has dined here! In an impeccably elegant setting, you will be able to choose from an excellent selection of both international and local dishes including Jota, a hearty bacon rind soup, goulash, tripe, veal stew, bread gnocchi or gnocchi stuffed with jam or prunes, ham and an excellent selection of desserts. Seafood is a must in a place like Trieste. There are dozens of seafood restaurants here and they are all of the highest quality so you will be spoilt for choice. However, you should definitely visit either the Faro (a trattoria offering magnificent panoramic views of the gulf, set at the feet of the imposing Faro della Vittoria and only a five minute drive from the city centre) or the Nuovo Antico Pavone - an elegant restaurant on the coast. Trieste is a small place, and it is possible to traverse it within half an hour (either on foot or by bus). As you walk across it, you will pass a large number of excellent cafés and restaurants. There are several which are not to be missed, including Stalletta for its cold starters, meat and hotplate dishes and Dardo Rosso for its delicious Steak Tartar - both of these are in the densely-populated working class district of San Giacomo, near San Giusto Castle. Another good place is Stanlio e Ollio - a candle-lit restaurant offering up imaginative cuisine on the Viale XX Settembre, a fifteen minute walk from the Piazza dell'Unità. Still in the city centre, you should try and pay a visit to San Marco - the large literary café (in Via Battista, parallel to Viale XX Settembre) which was frequented by the writer Claudio Magris and by both Svevo and Saba before him as well as to Pirona - a small pastry shop on Largo Barriera Vecchia. It is one of the oldest of its kind in Italy and was visted for breakfast by James Joyce every morning between 1910 and 1914. Today it sells a wonderful selection of cream pastries and other delightful Central European sweets such as presnitz (a pastry made from nuts and dried fruit, in the shape of Christs crown of thorns), putizza (puff pastry) with honey, fave (almond balls with rose oil and cocoa), crostoli, fritole and fritters with pine kernels which are typically made for the carnival. We can now turn inland towards the upland plains of the Carso, only a fifteen minute drive from the city. It is here that the majority of Italys Slovenian community lives. Besides being able to enjoy magnificent views and go on memorable walks, you will be able to visit family-run farm shops and osmizze, where farmers can (in accordance what was originally an Imperial decree) sell their own produce usually in spring and summer. In many of the small villages around Trieste such as Monrupino, San Dorligo, Basovizza and the charming Muggia (which stands suspended between land and sea in the east of the province), you will be able to try cheeses such as Tabor, home made salami, gnocchi and various meats as well as a selection of regional wines such as Malvasia, Vitovska Garganja and Terrano. In conclusion, a word of warning: The people of Trieste (escpecially those in the Carso region) are not particularly hospitable and tend to go to great lengths to avoid having to make conversation perhaps through laziness, or perhaps through force of habit. You have to accept them as they are: slightly mad, rather surly, occasionally good-natured and often anchored to the past, with a penchant for day-dreaming. However, if you get to know them (and Trieste), you will not be able to help but fall in love with this marvellous city which the journalist Julian Evans once described in Condè Nast Traveller as the true capital of the Adriatic in no way inferior to Venice. Bon appetit! Entertainment in TriesteArts and Culture Trieste is one big, open-air museum. As you walk through the citys streets and squares, open your eyes and take a look around you. Ancient Roman buildings are interspersed with beautiful eighteenth-century ones, Austrian-style landscapes, churches of all dominations, Art Nouveau façades, rural towns and villages such as Muggia and those on the upland plains. There are also of course, traditional theatres and museums as well as spaces where exhibitions and other large Europe-wide events are held such as the impressive multimedia exhibition for the Jewish speaking world (Shalom Trieste) which ran from 1998 to 1999. Trieste is also the city of historical cafés, of literature (it is home to favoured haunts of James Joyce, Saba and the contemporary writer Claudio Magris), of carefree Sundays spent in the beautiful Carso and also of science some of the most important scientific and technological research institutions in the country are based here. Museums Trieste has a huge selection of museums, as it is rich in both artistic treasures and historical curios. Thanks to the nineteenth century patronage of the arts, the city was flooded with valuable art collections, including the collection of contemporary art which is housed in the Museo Revoltella. It is one of the most renowned and complete collections of art in the country. Also worth a visit are the Civil Museum of Natural History, the museum of San Giusto Castle (a typical example of a military building) and the Museum of the Risorgimento which charts the events leading up to Triestes annexation with Italy. The Museo Teatrale Schmidl is second only to the museum of the Scala in Milan. Here, instruments, scores, records, photographs and other important evidence of the Italian theatrical scene can be seen on display. The disused Campo Marzio train station (from where trains once ran to Central Europe) today houses an interesting collection of electrical and steam locomotives, while the small Ethnographical Museum of Servola contains a remarkable collection of items which were used in daily life and charts the history of traditions and costumes which are long gone. The Risiera di San Sabba is the only Nazi concentration camp in Italy and the Foiba di Basovizza bears witness to the horrors committed here by the Communists both have been preserved as national monuments. The Castello di Miramare (the magnificent, romantic and ill-fortuned residence of Maximilian and Charlotte of Hapsburg, followed by Amedeo d'Aosta) is another unmissable location to be visited. Among the curiousities which should be visted are the Piccola Berlino (a network of underground passageways used by the Nazis to conceal themselves and to travel around the city), the extraordinary Grotta Gigante (a natural cavity so huge that it could house the whole of St Peters Basilica) and the Casa Carsica - an ancient rural settlement on the upland plains. Theatre The oldest theatre in the city is the Teatro Verdi. This building (only a stones throw from the Piazza dell'Unità d'Italia) was inaugurated in 1801, and its structure resembles that of the Scala in Milan. Today - along with a variety of shows and performances throughout the year it hosts an extremely popular Operatic Festival. Opera has a long and consolidated history in Trieste, in fact the city is often said to be Italys operatic capital. The Teatro Verdi is also very popular with lovers of classical music. For those who prefer drama, the Teatro Rossetti (which is especially popular with young people) often stages both classical and modern plays with which some of Italys best actors are involved. Extremely entertaining comedies in local dialect are often put on in the Teatro Cristallo and in the small Teatro dei Salesiani - usually by local theatre companies. The Teatro Miela on the coast puts on shows and performances of all genres. Cinema Most of the cinemas in Trieste can be found along the Viale XX Settembre, where many new cinemas have been built over the last five years. In addition to the Excelsior and the multi-screened Nazionale, you will find the large Ambasciatori, the Super and the Giotto - a dynamic cinema containing all the latest technology. The nearby car park is often full, and at weekends and on days of national premieres there are always huge queues outside the box office. The Ariston (which also stays open during the summer months) alternates between showing blockbusters and animated films, while if you are looking to spend a little less, try the Capitol or the Alcione which shows slightly older films. In the summer, you can enjoy an open-air cinema among the trees in the giardino pubblico on the Via Giulia in the city centre, while pornographic films are shown at the Mignon. The Teatro Miela often shows short and long films from Alpe Adria. These are often shown just once and are sometimes sub-titled. Music Don't expect too much on this front. Trieste is home to the highest number of O.A.Ps in the country, and when the clock strikes ten, the city centre seems to magically empty itself. It is only in recent years that the Valmaura stadium has been used to host large rock concerts; smaller events are often hosted at the Teatro Rossetti and the Palace of Sports. As for nightclubs, try the Mandracchio and the Machiavelli (which is on the road to Miramare). In the summer, if dancing on the beach is your thing, visit the Cantera Cafè in Sistiana, while Jazz fans should visit Around Midnight - a small club in the city centre which hosts musicians both from the Trieste region and further afield. The Trieste Song Festival also deserves a mention. Over twenty of these have been held and they consist of a number of local groups and soloists performing folk music. Dining in Europe > Trieste
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