Trieste: coffee houses and Habsburg heritage by the gulf

Surrounded by Austro-Hungarian palaces, Piazza Unità d'Italia is considered Europe's largest seafront plaza.

A few steps away, Molo Audace extends into the water to the point where, in 1918, the first Italian troops landed in the city.

Climbing toward the San Giusto hill you encounter the Roman Theatre from the first century AD, brought to light only in the early twentieth century after remaining buried for centuries beneath the medieval neighborhood's houses that had grown above it.

In the afternoon it's worth reaching, just outside the city, Miramare Castle, built between 1856 and 1860 by Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg on a rocky outcrop jutting into the gulf.

Maximilian left Miramare to become Emperor of Mexico and was executed a few years later: it is said that the castle, built for a life he never truly had, carries since then a reputation for misfortune.

In the historic cafés of the center, once frequented by writers like James Joyce and Italo Svevo, an atmosphere more reminiscent of Vienna than the rest of Italy still lingers.