Future Trip : Trieste

 Two of my favorite things to do are: 

1. Surf House Porn. I love looking at houses. Sometimes I just look at the local places which are pictured, but definitely not staged! (LA and NYC "stage" houses for images. That is they make them pretty, clean the insides and try to vanilla it up - few pictures, clean walls and few to no family images).
     1a. I super love looking at foreign houses that I fantasize about.

2. Plan multiple future trips. Not all come to fruition, but I like the fantasy of planning.

Number 2 above leads to today's fantasy trip. Trieste, Italy.

Images from a BBC News Travel Article today.

Trieste is an overshadowed city in the far corner of Italy. It has usually spoken (mainly) Italian, but it has only been part of Italy since 1918. Before that it was part of the Austria/Hungary Empire. It (and Kotor in Montenegro) were the two major Naval Ports for the Navy. Remember Captain Von Trapp, he was a Naval Captain in a landlocked country? But when he was younger Austria/Hungary had two ports. Adn Trieste was the major one, and the center of Austrian ship construction.

It was considered part of the Austrian Riviera - really.

That and the lack of major battles around Trieste during WWI and WWII means that Trieste (like Sarajevo) has a beautiful supply of Australian Buildings from the early 1900s that were not bombed out. These buildings are often Paris-like, but with a more varied appearance and embellishments.

Now before Austria / Hungary, it had been a free city under the Habsburg Empire. That is, it "belonged" to the Empire, but operated as a free port, under the protection of the Empire. This was also a period of richness and growth.

Before both of the Habsburg Empire, Trieste was under the Control of the Republic of Venice for centuries. So, like a few some older cities from the same area in Slovenia and Croatia, Tieste still has the "port and city center" design of those.

It stayed part of Venice until Napoleon conquered it, lost it, and it was claimed by the Habsburgs.

So, it draws me in for its history and its architecture.