The Historic Cafés of Trieste
Caffè San Marco and the capital of coffee
Trieste is the Italian capital of coffee: its port is one of the most important in the Mediterranean for the import of green coffee, the city is home to famous roasting companies, such as Illy, founded here in 1933, and the Triestini drink more coffee than any other Italians. Coffee culture here has a Central European flavour, inherited from the Habsburg period, when the cafés of Trieste, like those of Vienna, were meeting places for writers, intellectuals, merchants and patriots. Even the way of ordering is different: in Trieste an espresso is called a "nero", a macchiato a "capo" (from cappuccino), and if you want it in a glass you ask for a "capo in b", in a "bicchiere".
The most famous of the historic cafés is the Caffè San Marco, opened in 1914 in Via Battisti, with its splendid Viennese Secession interior, wooden panels, marble tables, and walls decorated with masks and coffee leaves. It was a meeting place for irredentists and intellectuals, and the writer Claudio Magris wrote many of his books here; today it also houses a bookshop. Other historic cafés include the Caffè Tommaseo, the oldest, opened in 1830, on the Rive, the Caffè degli Specchi, in Piazza Unità, and the Caffè Torinese, on Corso Italia. In these cafés, writers such as James Joyce, who lived in Trieste for more than ten years, Italo Svevo and the poet Umberto Saba spent long hours reading, writing and talking.
Tip: order a "capo in b" at the counter like a local; spend an hour reading at the Caffè San Marco.
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