PHOTO ALBUM: Trieste, Miramare Castle, James Joyce,
Duino, Rainer Maria Rilke Thinking Path
I’m no expert on James Joyce’s place in literary history. But as we strolled along the Grande Canal de Trieste, I knew I was walking in the literal footsteps of the writer for whom an old college friend once earned class strokes for calling “the most innovative author of the 20th Century.”
Along the canal bank stands a statue of the Irish novelist, who for 16 years lived in Trieste, where he began writing Ulysses. Two years after he left the small Italian port in 1920, his masterpiece was published in Paris.
Just across the bridge to the south, the James Joyce Café occupies the corner of Via Roma and Via Genova.
Trieste is a seaside, Medieval city with some 200,000 inhabitants that is characterized by narrow streets, one of Europe’s largest seaside squares, and a rich history and landmarks. It lies between Slovenia and the Adriatic Sea, which both share the coast with Croatia. Its history dates to pre-empire Romans, who controlled the port by 177 BC.
The centrally located Grand Canal was built between 1825 and 1849, four decades before Joyce was born, and connects the sea with the city center. It ends at the picturesque Church of Sant’Antonio Nuovo, Trieste’s largest house of worship.
My perfect Fall day spent exploring Trieste with friends Thomas and Estella included pizza – no slices, knife and fork, whole pizzas for each of us – as well as a stroll along the shallow Adriatic bay known as the Port of Trieste, which Wikipedia describes as Italy’s most important commercial port. Trieste’s is the nation’s only Free Port, through which goods pass with reduced customs restrictions.
The port meets the city’s main square, the Piazza Unità d’Italia, whose character has been influenced by the Romans, Venetians, Austrians, and Italians. .
Located a half hour from the Joyce statue, the Miramare Castle is the most popular tourist destination in Trieste, at least based upon the traffic, overflowing parking lots, and walkway that lead to the mid-19th-Century structure during our brief visit.
Not being one for crowds, I gravitated toward the 54-acre park’s scenic views of the Adriatic, Italian bathing beauties, and the Miramare’s dramatic profile against the Mediterranean Sea’s northernmost coastline.
Our last stop before returning to Austria, another 20 minutes north from Miramare, Duino is a seaside town of that lies at the Mediterranean’s northernmost point. Its most-famous landmark is the Duino Castle, whose most famous resident was the poet Rainer Maria Rilke.
Thomas insisted I walk Rilke’s Thinking Path, a narrow trail on a small cliff overlooking the sea, from which a writer’s blocked Rilkie in 1911-1912 found inspiration for his career-defining Duino Elegies.
