Backed by the green and white cliffs of a limestone plateau and facing the blue Adriatic, TRIESTE has a potentially idyllic setting; close up, however, the place reveals uninviting water and an atmosphere of run-down haughtiness. The city itself is rather strange: a capitalist creation built to play a role that no longer exists, though like so many ports in Europe, the seediness that long prevailed is now giving way to a nascent optimism. Trieste was Tergeste to the Romans, wh... [More]