|
 Trieste
has known many glamorous literary associations, particularly in the pre-World
War II years. As a stop on the Orient Express, it became a famed
destination. Dame Agatha Christie came this way, as did Graham Greene.
James Joyce, eloping with Nora Barnacle, arrived in 1904. Out of money,
Joyce got a job teaching at the Berlitz School and lived in Trieste for
nearly 10 years. He wrote A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man here
and might have begun his masterpiece Ulysses here as well. Poet Rainer
Maria Rilke also lived in the area. Author Richard Burton, known for his
Arabian Nights translations, lived in Trieste from 1871 until he died
about 20 years later.
Trieste, squashed between Slovenia and the Adriatic, has been more
vulnerable to conditions following the collapse of Yugoslavia than any
other city in Italy. Civil war and turmoil have halted the flow of
thousands who used to cross the border to buy merchandise -- mainly
jeans and household appliances. The port has also suffered from crises
in the shipbuilding and steel industries. Trieste remains Italy's
insurance capital, and one-fourth of its population of 150,000 residents
is retired (it has the highest per-capita pensioner population in Italy). |
