In the seaport city of Trieste, northeastern Italy

 "Italy’s most beautifully haunting city, Trieste (a heady and historic stew of many influences), is a languid, literary place like no other."

-- The Wall Street Journal
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(in northeastern Italy) The seaport city of Trieste is the capital of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. Trieste is located at the head of the Gulf of Trieste, on a narrow strip of territory lying between the Adriatic Sea and Slovenia -- which lies some 8 km (5 mi.) east and 10–15 km (6–9 mi.) southeast of the city, while Croatia is about 30 km (19 mi) to the south of the city.

+ Trieste has a long coastline and is surrounded by grassland, forest, and karstic areas. The city has a subtropical climate, due to marine breezes. Capital of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia and previously capital of the Province of Trieste (until its abolition on 1 October 2017), Trieste belonged to the Habsburg monarchy from 1382 until 1918. In the 19th century the monarchy was one of the great powers of Europe and Trieste was its most important seaport. As a prosperous trading hub in the Mediterranean region, Trieste became the fourth largest city of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (after Vienna, Budapest, and Prague). In the fin de siècle period it emerged as an important hub for literature and music. Trieste underwent an economic revival during the 1930s, and the Free Territory of Trieste became a major site of the struggle between the Eastern and Western blocs after World War II.

+ A deep-water port, Trieste is a maritime gateway for northern Italy, Germany, Austria, and Central Europe. It is considered the end point of the maritime Silk Road, with its connections to the Suez Canal and Turkey.
+ Trieste was proclaimed an imperial free port by Charles VI in 1719. By 1891, it became the prosperous main port of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, with a seaborne trade in 1913 of 6,200,000 metric tons. In the secret treaty of London of April 26, 1915, Great Britain, France, and Russia agreed to give the city to Italy at the conclusion of World War I as part of a group of territorial concessions rewarding Italian alliance with the Triple Entente.

+ The modern city, begun in 1719 on the flatland adjoining the bay, is characterized by broad streets and typical 18th-century Baroque and 19th-century Neoclassical architecture. During the 1850s Miramare Castle (shown here) was built nearby for Archduke Maximilian (later Emperor Maximilian of Mexico). 

+ Trieste is physically and psychologically isolated from the rest of the Italian peninsula. As such, it preserves its own unique border-town culture and retains a fascinating air of fluidity encapsulated in the Triestini dialect, a melange of Italian, Austrian-German, Croatian, and Greek. Its waterfront is lined with neoclassical architecture, a view of which (plus the marina filled with sleek white yachts, the city lidos, the long, sandy beaches and the vineyard-draped hinterland of the karst) holds the real magic of Trieste.