Tracking James Joyce through Ancient Rome

Trieste is a slip of a city sandwiched between Slovenia and the Adriatic Sea. Since its founding before the Roman Republic took control it 2300 years ago, it has been the part of 23 different empires and nations. People here freely exchange some version of four languages – Italian, Slovenian, German and Croatian, with liberal doses of English thrown in as it quickly becomes the region’s universal language.

The city has been close to the hearts of Augustus Caesar, who built a wall around it in 33 A.D. and the last Empress of Austria-Hungary – Maria Teresa.

Its most famous monuments are the Castle and Cathedral of San Giusto, edifices that dominate the high hill above its deep harbor. Great food, lively shops. Easy to get to by ferry from Venice. In the 14th to 18th centuries, these two cities battled for supremacy of the Mediterranean.

Being an English Lit major, one of my main reasons for coming to Trieste was because James Joyce had also become a lover of the city. For 15 years, the great writer penned parts of three of his masterpieces: his short stories, Dubliners; one of my favorite books of all time Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man; and his masterwork and the novel that made him famous, Ulysses. We spent some time in the Café San Marco, where he scribbled many of his notes as he labored to complete these remarkable books. I was in awe.

Naturally I had to find the sculpture of him in the city and say hello 😊.