Piazza d’Unità d’Italia in Trieste
I’m not going to try to bluff my way through Trieste’s historic links to the Habsburg Empire. Still, it is evident even to a historically challenged visitor like myself that the city’s northerly location on the Slovenian border sets it apart from other Italian centres. Travel writer Jan Morris described it as having a “prickly grace”.
The Piazza Unità d’Italia opens onto the seafront and is a splendid centrepiece yet while much of the architecture is similarly impressive and stately, there’s also an unmistakable air of faded glory. Many buildings in the back streets are badly maintained or semi-derelict. Some of the damage is doubtless due to the Bora, a notoriously high wind that regularly blasts through the city at hurricane force. On my last day of a short weekend break it was very blustery although I’m sure locals would classify these as light breezes. Continue reading
