Things to do in Trieste

Trieste spent longer under the Habsburgs than under Italy. It still looks the part, all grand cafés and Vienna-style facades on an Adriatic waterfront. Freud spent a student spring here dissecting eels, and Joyce wrote much of Ulysses in its cafés.

A port that ran on coffee

Charles VI made Trieste a free port in 1719. Ships began landing coffee here for all of central Europe, and the habit stuck. By the late 1800s the city held dozens of roasters and cafés, a trade Illy still carries on today.

Piazza Unità d'Italia opens straight onto the sea. No square in Europe built against open water runs larger. Iron rails are bolted into nearby pavements for the bora, the wind that can knock a person over without warning.

Out along the coast

• Miramare Castle. Built in the 1850s for Archduke Maximilian, a Habsburg who left it for a throne in Mexico and did not come back alive.
• San Giusto Hill. A castle and a cathedral share the height above town, with the harbour laid out below both.
• The border towns. Slovenia and Croatia sit close enough for a half-day out; Piran and Portorož are common day trips by road.

Practical

• The bora. It can hit without much warning between autumn and spring. Ferry sailings get cancelled on the worst days.
• Coffee order. A "nero" is a plain espresso here, not the usual Italian word. A "capo" is a macchiato; for what the rest of Italy calls a cappuccino, ask for a caffelatte.
• Weather. Summer reaches about 28C; winter days sit near 8C, and bora gusts can pass 100 km/h.
• Getting around. The centre is flat and walkable; buses reach Miramare and the hill castle easily.
• Mix of cuisines. Menus run Italian, Slovenian and Austrian side by side; goulash and strudel sit next to seafood without irony.