L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2022 www.italoamericano.org 4 NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS R ight at the top of the boot, an a r i s t o c r a t i c frontier city lies o n a n a r r o w s t r i p o f l a n d b e t w e e n t h e Adriatic Sea and Slovenia. Trieste's unique history as a hub for global cultural and c o m m e r c i a l e x c h a n g e s u n v e i l s a s e c r e t , h a u n t e d past. Lisa Deiuri, a con- noisseur of Gothic fiction and illustrator, explains the hid- d e n s o u l o f t h e o n c e c o s - mopolitan port city of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that boasts a proud literary p e d i g r e e . A b o o k s h e c o - authored with Francesca Pitacco maps out the occult essence of Trieste dispersed through sites, monuments, and places of mystery. The stories contained in the book Trieste Occulta. Storie N e r e A i T e m p i d e g l i Asburgo (MGS Press) mix legend and historical reality. The publication is an alter- native tourist guide of the city, suggesting an out-of- the-way tour for internation- al visitors. "I tell an unusual Trieste to rediscover an aspect of its past that is invisible on the streets and buildings that I see every day when I leave the house to go to work or to h a v e a n a p e r i t i f w i t h f r i e n d s , " e x p l a i n s M s . Deiuri. She is the founder of Trieste Arcana, a cultural format highlighting Trieste's mysterious neighborhoods, m o n u m e n t s , a n d n e a r b y hamlets. I n t h e m i d - e i g h t e e n t h c e n t u r y , M a r i a T h e r e s a , r u l e r o f t h e H a b s b u r g dominions from 1740 until she died in 1780, turned Trieste into the port of Cen- tral Europe – the Mitteleu- ropa. Thus, Trieste became a powerful city, the financial and commercial center of the Habsburgs that mixed German, Italian, Hungari- an, and Slavic languages. Even the Triestine dialect incorporates German, Ital- ian, Sl ovene, Gr eek, and Croatian traces. A melting pot is at the heart of Tri- este's culture. D e i u r i s a y s , " I n t h e s e uncertain times, the redis- c o v e r y o f t h e p a s t h e l p s imagine a future. People meet their inner demons in the characters of certain strange stories to defuse them." And again, she adds, "Seeing one's dark side in someone else, preferably a monster defeated by a hero, helps one face one's fears and not be overwhelmed by them." S o w h i c h g h o s t w a l k s does Trieste host? Deiuri designs itineraries where t h e f a n t a s t i c c o m e s i n t o play. She studies vampires, symbols of the suffering of t h e h u m a n s o u l , s h a d e d creatures, and pale female ghosts walking around Tri- este palazzos and castles. She suggests that inter- national tourists start from the old city (Città Vecchia) and end at the San Giusto, Miramare, and Duino cas- tles. "Each of these three castles has its ghost," says Deiuri. "We have deliberately left out the Karst (limestone) hills riddled with caves and sinkholes and inhabited by a rural population of Slavic origin whose folklore is so rich — perhaps we will write about that in a follow-up b o o k , " s h e s a y s . " H . P . L o v e c r a f t w o u l d h a v e loved the Karst, but for the moment, we are satisfied with the city tales, more in t u n e w i t h E d g a r A l l a n Poe's modern sensibility." In the Città Vecchia dis- trict, tourists should visit Piazza di Cavana. "Once t h e c i t y ' s b e a t i n g h e a r t , w h e r e w o m e n f l o c k e d t o shops and men to taverns and brothels, it was the set- ting of ghost stories," says Deiuri. "There is a legend of sinister nocturnal proces- sions that occurred in the dark Via Dei Colombi and culminated on the San Gius- Continued to page 6 Trieste Ghosts and Mystery Tours Miramare Castle in an illustration by Lisa Deiuri (Artwork and copyright: Lisa Deiuri) MARIELLA RADAELLI

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