Italian city looks to blend culture with economics

Trieste, home to Italy’s main free trade zone and capital of the prosperous Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, is located in the far northeast of the country, but you would not be criticised if you couldn’t name it in a game of Trivial Pursuit.

My family and I originally planned to stay just 48 hours touring the city known for its grand architecture and sprawling piazzas, but is seen as too far off the beaten track for most. By the time it was all said and done, we spent five days touring art galleries, antique shops and the ornate coffee bars that have fascinated scores of foreigners including writers such as James Joyce and Jan Morris.

Joyce was enthralled by Trieste’s charm and spent a decade, penning some of his best-known works here including Dubliners and Ulysses.

But as a financial journalist and editor, I could not resist thinking of its economic potential after taking a tour of its waterfront and digging up a quote from Joyce himself, “I am today what I established yesterday or some previous day”.

Trieste, with just over 200,000 residents, lives off its past as one of the most important cities of the Austro-Hungarian empire, arguably hitting its commercial peak during the reign of Empress Maria Theresa during the late 18th century.

At the centre of it all is Piazza Unita’ d’Italia. Today the offices of two of Trieste’s corporate pillars can be seen from the comfortable loungers of the Cafe degli Specchi: The insurance stalwart Generali and its counterpart in shipping, Lloyd Adriatico.

Hub for coffee

Surprising to me at least, other players of scale from Italy’s industrial north call Trieste their home, including Fincantieri, a world leader in shipbuilding, and Illy, one of the best known coffee brands with cafes now springing up around the globe. Trieste remains an important hub for coffee, importing 40 per cent of the beans in the land of the cappuccino.

But there are aspirations to do more, much more if one can bank on the plans articulated by Roberto Dipiazza who recently secured a third mandate as mayor. His administration takes credit for having planted the seeds of the city’s renewal built around trade, tourism and services.

One could draw a comparison with Dubai. Back in 1990 during my first visit to the region, the chairman of DP World Sultan Ahmad Bin Sulayem rolled out a blueprint for me and talked of plans to build the biggest port in the Middle East and North Africa. It dovetailed with the launch of Emirates airline in its early days.

Back in 2004, the Italian financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore ranked Trieste as the best in the country for quality of life and services and eight years later Lonely Planet listed it as one of the most underrated travel destinations.

Perhaps signalling an important shift, investors are signalling a willingness to make commitments to this city that straddles both Slovenia and Croatia and could revive its role as a trade hub for Central Europe.

Infrastructure investment

Last autumn, the Mediterranean Shipping Company acquired a 45 per cent stake in the Trieste Marine Terminal to leverage a European Union infrastructure investment programme called TEN-T.

The chief executive of the state’s rail network Ferrovie dello Stato, Renato Mazzoncini, recently said it was important to link Italy’s ports of the south to the north including Trieste with a near $7 billion (Dh25.7 billion) rail investment plan. During our stay, the city was abuzz with talk of limiting the number of cruise ships calling on Venice due to the wear and tear on the city’s canals with hopes that Trieste could pick up some of its tourism traffic.

From its strategic position at the top of the Adriatic Sea, there is scope for Trieste to rebuild its glory, but it needs to be better connected. High-speed rail and airline links leave international visitors wanting for more. But perhaps that is both the charm and challenge for this city.

While exploring some of these concepts with a wide variety of Triestine, they speak with energy about the past but less so about their future. This is borne out through the fall in the number of residents. The population has shrunk by 70,000 over the past generation.

Educated workforce

Laura Bilucaglia, an artist and designer who opened her three-room Atelier Lidia Polla bed and breakfast, said there’s not an overwhelming desire from locals to see rapid development. While I could see great potential in a highly educated workforce with a top flight research university attracting hi-tech or biotech companies, others talk of spoiling what is their prized quality of life right on the sea, enjoying majestic sunsets that fill their squares with an orange glow on a regular basis.

But one could appreciate the risk of not embracing change after touring the impressive art gallery established by the industrialist Pasquale Revoltella in his former villa. The Baron built his fortune in the 19th century rightly seeing the potential of the trade hub utilising the passage of the Suez Canal to host ships from India to the Americas.

That type of blue-sky thinking could offer more hope to the next generation of traders and financiers without jeopardising the charm that is Trieste.