Around the World in 22 Books
Trieste and the meaning of nowhere
by Jan Morris
First published in 2001.
This edition by Faber and Faber.
Morris engagingly combines a history
of the city with her personal reflections on the passage of time. She
(then James) first visited Trieste as a soldier at the end of World War
II. Once a major port city in the Austro-Hungarian empire, Trieste, as
a consequence of war, is now part of Italy. Located on a mountainous peninsula
next to Croatia and Slovenia, the port city is often forgotten. It’s
this sense of displacement which vividly resonates with Morris and she
skillfully makes Trieste feel not so much like nowhere as everywhere.
