A Lot Like Seattle

As we left Riccione for our bike tour in Slovenia, we stopped for a day in Trieste and discovered a city a lot like Seattle.

It's located in the far northern corner of Italy.


It's built on a hillside right next to the sea.

Serious mountains are less than an hour's drive from the heart of town.


It was flattened by Allied bombing during WW II, and like Seattle the heart of the city was largely built up after the war.

It's a major container port, one of the largest in the Mediterranean.

A half dozen container ships sat just off the port, waiting for the weekend to pass so they could load or unload cargo.

And, it's the coffee capital of Italy.  It's the home of some of Europe's largest coffee companies.


The first coffee imported into Europe came through the port of Trieste.


The espresso machine was invented here.

On virtually every street, you can find more than one small coffee shop where people socialize and conduct business.

And there are a dozen or more small coffee roasters who sell their beans or a cup of caffe out of their small shops.

There are some differences as well.


This building would be the equivalent of the King County Administrative Building.


 It doesn't look quite the same.

For one thing, the sun shines most days of the year.



Therefore, it makes sense to  adorn the exteriors of buildings with elaborate painted decorations.

Trieste is a very German city.

Five hundred years ago, the city fathers got tired of Venetian raids and asked the Austrian Emperor for protection.

In return, the Austro-Hungarian Empire got a seaport to base its navy and a gateway for Mediterranean trade.

Trieste remained part of the Austrian Empire for the next 400 years.


The Italians had the good fortune to fight on the Allied side in World War I, and when the Treaty of Rapallo dismembered the Austrian Empire, Italy annexed Trieste and the Italian region of Fiuli.