Trieste... 
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is a city and port in northeastern Italy very near to the Slovenian border, to the North, East and South.
Trieste is located at the head of the Gulf of Trieste on the Adriatic Sea. With a population of 208,614 (2007) it is the capital of the autonomous region Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Trieste province.
Trieste flourished as part of Austria, from 1382 (the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1867) until 1918 when it was one of the few seaports in what was one of the Great Powers of Europe.
It was among the most prosperous Mediterranean seaports as well as a capital of literature and music. However, the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Trieste's annexation to Italy after World War I led to a decline of its economic and cultural importance.
Today, Trieste is a border town. The population is an ethnic mix of the neighbouring regions; The dominant local Venetian dialect of Trieste is called Triestine ("Triestin" - pronounced [triɛsˈtin], in Italian "Triestino").
This dialect and the official Italian language are spoken in the city centre, while Slovene is spoken in several of the immediate suburbs. The Venetian and the Slovene languages are considered autochthonous of the area.
There are also small numbers of German and Hungarian speakers.
Places of touristic interest in Trieste include numerous examples of Art Nouveau and neoclassical architecture from its Austrian past, the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, the International School for Advanced Studies and Trieste University.
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Air transport
Trieste is served by the nearby Friuli Venezia Giulia Airport, located at Ronchi near Monfalcone at the head of the Gulf of Trieste.Local transport
Local public transport in Trieste is operated by Trieste Trasporti, which operates a network of around 60 bus routes and two boat services. They also operate the Opicina Tramway, a unique hybrid tramway and funicular railway that provides a more direct link between the city centre and Villa Opicina.Main sights
Castles
Castle of Miramare
The Castle was built between 1856 and 1860 from a project by Carl Junker working under Archduke Maximilian.
The Castle gardens provide a setting of outstanding beauty with a variety of trees, chosen by and planted on the orders of Maximilian, that today make a remarkable collection.
Features of particular attraction in the gardens include two ponds, one noted for its swans and the other for lotus flowers, the Castle annexe ("Castelletto"), a nearby a bronze statue of Maximilian, and a small chapel where is kept a cross made from the remains of the "Novara", the flagship on which Maximilian, brother of Emperor Franz Josef, set sail to become Emperor of Mexico.
Castle of San Giusto
Designed on the remains of previous castles on the site, it took almost two centuries to build. The stages of the development of the Castle's defensive structures are marked by the central part built under Frederick III (1470-1), the round Venetian bastion (1508-9), the Hoyos-Lalio bastion and the Pomis, or "Bastione fiorito" dated 1630.
The Castle - in which several rooms, including the Sala Caprin, are open to the public - houses a Museum displaying historical weapons and is regularly used for the staging of exhibitions, events and, in the summer, open-air shows. A walk on the Castle ramparts and bastions gives a complete panorama of the city of Trieste, its hills and the sea.
Churches
* The Cathedral of San Giusto.* The Serb-Orthodox Temple of Holy Trinity and St. Spiridio (1869). The building adopts the Greek-Cross plan with five cupolas in the Byzantine tradition.
* Basilica of San Silvestro (11th century)
* Church of Santa Maria Maggiore (1682)
* Church of San Nicolò dei Greci (1787). This church by the architect Matteo Pertsch (1818), with bell-towers on both sides of the facade, follows the Austrian late baroque style.
* Israelite Temple of Trieste (1912)
Archaeological remains
* Arch of Riccardo (33 BC). It is an Augustan gate built in the Roman walls in 33. It stands in Piazzetta Barbacan, in the narrow streets of the old town. It's called Arco di Riccardo ("Richard's Arch") because is believed to have been crossed by King Richard of England on the way back from the Crusades.* Basilica Forense (2nd century)
* Palaeochristian basilica
Roman theatre
Trieste or Tergeste, which probably dates back to the protohistoric period, was enclosed by walls built in 33–32 BC on Emperor Octavius’s orders. The city developed greatly during the 1st and 2nd centuries.
The Roman theatre lies at the foot of the San Giusto hill, facing the sea. The construction partially exploits the gentle slope of the hill, and much of the theatre is made of stone. The topmost portion of the amphitheatre steps and the stage were supposedly made of wood.
The statues that adorned the theatre, brought back to light in the 1930s, are now preserved at the Town Museum. Three inscriptions from the Trajan period mention a certain Q. Petronius Modestus, someone closely connected to the development of the theatre, which was erected during the second half of the 1st century.
Caves
In the whole Trieste province, an amount of 10 speleological groups (24 in Friuli-Venezia Giulia) exist. The Trieste plateau (Altopiano Triestino), called Kras or the Carso and covering an area of about 200 km² within Italy has approximately 1500 caves of various sizes. Among the most famous ones are the Grotta Gigante, the largest tourist cave in the world, with a single cavity large enough to contain St Peter's in Rome, and the Cave of Trebiciano (350 m deep) at the bottom of which flows the Timavo River. This river dives underground at Škocjan Caves in Slovenia (they are on UNESCO list) and flows about 30 km before emerging about 1 km from the sea in a series of springs near Duino reputed by the Romans to be an entrance to Hades. Cafe degli specchi (Mirror café) Cafe degli specchi (Mirror café)
Others
* The Risiera di San Sabba (Risiera di San Sabba Museum)', a national monument. It is a testimonial of the only Nazi extermination camp in Italy.
* The Foibe (Fojbe), also sort of national monuments (foiba of "Basovizza" is a national monument). Those are a testimonial of the extermination of Italians by Yugoslav troops after World War II. Yugoslav army took revenge on the Italian fascists, because of the violence, which lasted from 1920 until 1945, on the Slovene minority of the Trieste region.
* The Trieste Joyce Museum
* Civico Museo di Storia Naturale di Trieste (natural history museum) containing fossils of early man.
* Civico Orto Botanico di Trieste, a municipal botanical garden
* Orto Botanico dell'Università di Trieste, the University of Trieste's botanical garden
* Val Rosandra, a national park on the border between Trieste and Slovenia