Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere

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The book ends with Morris reflecting on the 21st century reinvention of Trieste as alternative tourist destination, outward looking centre of science, and place of international culture. For me Trieste is an allegory of limbo, nowhere defined by an hiatus after the second world war when Communists laid claim.

Trieste is portrayed as a melancholy place, a kind of 'nowhere' that has passed through changes of history and geography until it ended up with no real place to belong. The book started and ended there and each of her five thematic sections had its starting-point in the city.Nieces, nephews and now great-nieces have been teaching me this for a while, but it feels like it’s getting more obvious lately that I’m edging towards that unknown territory that Morris refers to. But there is material enough in Morris’ book, questions unanswered and sites unseen, to justify future trips, many more of them, to Trieste. At the beginning of the 20th century, Trieste had grown to international importance as an entry point into Central Europe, so much so that it was referred to as "the third entrance of the Suez Canal". Now I have visited Trieste, I can fully appreciate Jan Morris's point of view and will re-read it, it was so well written and so evocative of this 'Austro/Italian' city on the edge of Italy. To become a subscriber to Slightly Foxed: The Real Reader’s Quarterly Magazine, please visit our subscriptions page.

So until I read a few more of her books – “Spain” just arrived this week and “Conundrum”, her account of her transition from man to woman, is on my “to read” list – there are parts of this book that I may not have fully appreciated. In any event, I've decided to read one of her books every year, maybe as a hope for an extension of my life.But the encounter proved decisive, and looking back from the vantage point of old age, Morris sets down a lifetime’s wisdom and learning in this book which is also a wonderfully well-written and highly evocative history of the Habsburgs’ Most Faithful City.

Morris also muses on Trieste as a limbo for the living, a nowhere sort of place that frees people to momentarily be nobody and, in so pausing, perhaps finding out who to continue to be. I would love to go back to Aomori, and the way Morris wrote about Trieste makes me think I’d enjoy visiting there, too. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions.Inside, I’m not the chronological age I am, but I know that the people who are the age I feel view me as that chronological age. You can change your nationality by the stroke of a notary's pen; you can enjoy two nationalities at the same time or find your nationality altered for you, overnight, by statesmen far away. I wonder what her thoughts were on the changes that have happened since she wrote those words about historical invention, whether she continued her journey away from unthinking acceptance of racial terminology. First, as mentioned earlier, I wanted to learn more about the craft and art of writing about places and journeys. Morris takes a great deal of time and care to report the history and physical characteristics of Trieste accurately.