Where to Stay in Trieste, Friuli Venezia Giulia

What is Trieste known for?

The Roman gate called Arco di Riccardo and the Roman Theatre of Trieste survive within the old core that grew from the colony of Tergeste, a short climb above the modern grid. Above them rises the Castello di San Giusto, the castle on the hill. Its churches record a mix of faiths.

Trieste Cathedral keeps the Catholic seat beside the castle, while Saint Spyridon Church serves the Serbian Orthodox community down near the harbour.

What are the main landmarks in Trieste?

Landmarks crowd a small centre. On the San Giusto hill, the Castello di San Giusto and Trieste Cathedral overlook the rooftops, while the Roman Theatre of Trieste and Arco di Riccardo mark the Roman town below. Galleries fill the old palazzi.

The Revoltella Museum shows nineteenth-century art near the seafront, and the Museo Sartorio keeps period rooms and drawings in a villa close by. Down at the water, the Museo del Mare traces the port's seafaring past.

What is the history of Trieste?

Trieste began as Tergeste. A Roman colony on the gulf, it left the gate now called Arco di Riccardo, dating from the 1st century AD, and the Roman Theatre of Trieste cut into the hillside below San Giusto. Habsburg rule made the city.

After it was declared a free port in 1719, Trieste grew into the main seaport of the Austrian empire, and its quays drew Serbian, Greek and Jewish merchants who built their own houses of worship. Saint Spyridon Church rose for the Serbian Orthodox community, San Nicolò dei Greci for the Greek, and the synagogue and its Jewish Museum Carlo e Vera Wagner for a large Jewish community. Empress Maria Theresa drained the salt pans to lay out the Borgo Teresiano, the neoclassical quarter threaded by the Canal Grande.

The twentieth century brought rupture. Trieste passed to Italy after the First World War, and during the Second the occupiers ran the Risiera di San Sabba, the rice mill turned concentration camp that the city keeps as a memorial. A contested zone followed the war.

The city returned to Italian administration in 1954 and is the capital of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia.

Where is Trieste?

Trieste sits at the head of the Adriatic. The city wraps a narrow shelf of land in north-eastern Italy, hard against the border with Slovenia, where the limestone Carso plateau drops steeply to a gulf of the same sea. Its old town climbs the San Giusto hill above the port.

Below it, the harbour and the railway run along the waterfront, and the streets behind rise quickly toward the Carso. It is the regional capital of Friuli Venezia Giulia.

What is the climate of Trieste?

In Trieste the Adriatic calls the tune. Trieste has a temperate climate softened by the Adriatic, with warm dry summers and mild, damp winters along the gulf. Its signature is the bora.

This cold, dry wind funnels down from the Carso plateau and sweeps the harbour in hard gusts, mostly in the colder months. Snow is rare by the water.

How do you get to Trieste?

Most arrivals come by land. Trains reach Trieste Centrale, the waterfront terminus, from Venice and the wider Italian network, and regional buses run across the border from Slovenia and Croatia. The airport lies north-west of the city.

Flights use the regional airport at Ronchi dei Legionari, on the plain toward the Isonzo, with a rail link down to the centre. Ferries and cruise ships still call at the old port.