Autumn is here

Aerial

Monte Cocusso

Rotonda Pancera

On the corner between via F. Venezian and via della Rotonda, the elegant rounded neoclassical facade of the Rotonda Pancera (M. Pertsch, 1804-1806).

Hangar

Waiting

Skywatch Friday post

See more Skywatch here.

FS18

Barcola - Railway bridge

Sad moustache

Bus 12

While waiting for bus n. 12 you can read a piece of "A Blind Man Sings To His City" by the Bosnian poet Abdulah Sidran. Here's the whole poem:

A Blind man sings to his City
The rain stops. Now from the drains,
From the attics, from under the floorboards
Of the shattered homes in the suburbs
Oozes the stench of the corpses
Of mice. I walk seeking
No special meaning in this. A blind man,
To whom it has been given to see
Only what others don't. This
Makes up for my deprivation: in the south wind
That touches me I recognise the voices
Of those who left this city. As if they were crying.
There, scent of the linden trees, close.
I know
The bridge is near, where my step and my stick
Will ring differently - more light
In the sound.There, now, right by my ear
Two flies mate in the air.
It will be scorching hot again
Bodies
Brush past me,hot
Smelling of bed, smelling of lust. I walk muttering
To God, as if He were beside me:
'Surely nobody in this city
Better than me - better than me, God,
To whom you have given never to see
The face he loves.'
(Ted Hughes, Selected Translations)

Kaiserlich Königliche Staats Gewerbe Schule

The "Kaiserlich Königliche Staats Gewerbe Schule", now the "Alessandro Volta" Technical Institute, was established in 1887 and was one of thirty-six Industrial schools in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The photo shows a detail of the new school premises in Via Monte Grappa.

Pedocin (3)

It was on a cold winter's day in January that I gave you a brief outline of the story of Pedocin (1-2), showing you the women's side when it was completely deserted. Here is a summer shot I took from a boat.

Giani Stuparich

An anguished memory of the Hotel Balkan events (see yesterday's post) is narrated by Giani Stuparich (Trieste, 1981 - Rome, 1961) in "Trieste nei miei ricordi".
"I'll never forget that summer afternoon in 1920 when the Balkan was set on fire. [...] In the tragic spectacle of that afternoon I sensed something appalling: the boundaries of that square opened the way to a deadly vision of decay and ruin, as if something much more ghastly than war itself was threatening the foundations of our civilization [...]. The fascists were responding to the cruel events of Split, where officers of the Italian ship Puglia had been beaten up and Gulli, the commanding officer, had been fatally wounded. I had believed that a civilized country had higher aims than that of being violent with even more arbitrary violence, blindly hitting out at innocent people in order to punish the offenders and making a whole nation responsible for the insane acts of only a few of its members. If the Balkan was actually a den of conspirators and Slavic murderers, as was alleged afterwards to justify "the people's anger", if it really was a threat to the quiet city life, couldn't a governor with all the legal powers and local police at his disposal, have expurgated it and made it harmless?
But the truth was that violence, as a brutal method, was in the soul and in the intentions of a group of men that tended to leave the confused mass in order to seize the State power".

Narodni Dom

Narodni Dom (National House), also known among the Italians as the Hotel Balkan, is a building in Piazza Oberdan constructed in 1904 to a design by architect Max Fabiani.

Now it hosts the Scuola Superiore per Interpreti e Traduttori di Trieste. In the past it has hosted a theatre, a hotel, a bank, a restaurant, a cafè and it used to be the cultural centre of Triestine Slovenians.

During the 1920s and 1930s the Slavic population was subjected to forced Italianization and discrimination under the Italian Fascist regime. They were also exposed to state sponsored violence by fascist party mobs.

On July 13 1920, the fascist squads burnt down the building and prevented the fire brigade from putting the fire out, while the people inside the building were jumping out of the windows to flee from the blaze.

22 24 26

Androna San Cilino

Door with plant

Foro Ulpiano

The Forum ("foro" in Italian) was the public space in the middle of a Roman city. A gathering place of great social significance, it was often the scene of diverse activities, including political discussions, meetings, et cetera (wiki).

Times changed and our Foro Ulpiano, facing the courthouse, is now a car park.

As the Romans would say: o tempora, o mores!

Sunny black and white

Zoom in from Via Virgilio.

Skywatch Friday post (Borino)

The lonely boat moored on the Fratelli Bandiera jetty is the "Borino", the school boat of the Nautical Institute, a prestigious school founded in 1754.

After years of activity, this 23-metre wooden boat is shortly to be dismantled. The Nautical students will remain on land as they wait for a worthy replacement.

See more Skywatch here.

The Synagogue

The Synagogue. Photo taken from Scala Properzio.

Shirt shop Botteri

Camiceria Botteri, by Huib Rademakers
Atelier:
Sint Walburgstraat 24,
9712 HX Groningen

Web site: www.huibrademakers.nl

Architectural Yin Yang

(Piazzetta Tor Cucherna)

Fools read this

Hidden away in one of the narrow lanes of Trieste's old city is one of the most commonplace and childish graffiti, found all over Italy: "fools read this"

The truth is revolutionary

Toy house in Santa Croce

Santa Croce

Just over 15 km from Trieste, at about 200 metres above sea level, lies Santa Croce, a village with a population of 1300.

Strangler

(Miramare Park)

Another back

Following the 'front' and 'back' of recent posts, here's another statue in two parts. This time though, there won't be a 'front'. Tomorrow, I'll reveal the tragic gesture of this fine young man.

Hotel Riviera & Maximilian's

This outdoor lift, linking a hotel to the bathing resort below, is a real eyesore for lovers of the coast.