Italy's real coffee capital. Illy was born here. The coffee vocabulary is different. The Habsburg cafés are extraordinary.
Plan your Italy trip →Trieste was the Habsburg Empire's main coffee port — beans arrived here from the Ottoman world before being distributed across Central Europe. Illy was founded here in 1933. The city still processes more coffee than any other port in the Mediterranean. The café culture is Viennese-meets-Italian: grand rooms, marble tables, reading newspapers for hours — but the coffee is Italian-quality espresso, not Viennese filter.
Nero: Espresso (don't say "caffè" — say "nero"). Nero in b: Espresso in a glass. Capo: Espresso with a drop of milk (what the rest of Italy calls macchiato). Capo in b: Macchiato in a glass. Gocciato: Similar to macchiato but with slightly more milk. This vocabulary exists ONLY in Trieste.
Caffè San Marco (1914) — Trieste's most literary café. James Joyce, Italo Svevo, and Umberto Saba all wrote here. Still functioning as a café-bookshop. Caffè degli Specchi (Piazza Unità d'Italia) — the grand piazza café. Antico Caffè Torinese — wood-paneled Art Nouveau interior. Caffè Tommaseo (1830) — the oldest café in Trieste, possibly in Italy.
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