This stroll in the town centre of Trieste is an opportunity to breathe the atmosphere that inspired some among the greatest Italian and European writers and to visit the favourite places of the outstanding figures of literature who lived in Trieste such as Saba, Svevo, and Joyce.The tour begins in Piazza Unità, from where we meander through the alleyways of Cittavecchia, an area beloved by Italo Svevo who took here his daily strolls, and by Joyce who in his writings reproduced faithfully the heterogeneous and frenzy climate of this area. Opposite the Teatro Verdi, which Joyce used frequent since he was an opera lover, there stood the Union Bank offices where Svevo worked for as many as 18 years; life in that bank became the scenery for his first novel: Una Vita (A Life).The tour continues along Via San Nicolò. At number 30 you can find the "Umberto Saba" Antiquarian Bookshop, which was managed by the poet with the same name and on whose shelves precious volumes are still to be found. At number 32 is the palace which used to be the headquarters of the Berlitz School, the institute where Joyce worked for several years as an English teacher, and where the friendship between the Irish writer and Italo Svevo began. Moving on towards Viale XX Settembre, at number 16, you can find the palace where Ettore Schmitz, better known under the name of Italo Svevo, was born.
