Romans, Habsburgs and Mussolini Self Guided Tour of Trieste

For five hundred years, Trieste was not Italian. It was a Habsburg free port, a city where merchants paid almost no tax. Greek, Serbian, Jewish and Armenian traders built almost every grand palace you will see. This self-guided audio walking tour of Trieste puts a friendly narrator in your pocket and gives you 19 stops to explore at your own pace. Stand on the pier where Italy first claimed the city in 1918. Find the square where Mussolini announced the racial laws. Trace three fountains by a single sculptor. Hear how a Hungarian veteran invented modern espresso here. The app works offline. Pause for a coffee, photos, or just to sit in a piazza. There is no fixed start time and no group to keep up with. Over 20,000 travelers have used our self-guided tours, and this Trieste audio tour comes with a full refund guarantee. If you want a Trieste walking tour that does not herd you between stops, this one is built for you.

1. 1

   Molo Audace - Gia "Molo S. Carlo"

   Pass by

   Stand on the pier whose namesake destroyer was Japanese by design and Scottish by birth.

2. 2

   Stop 2

   Pass by

   Trace the bilingual plaque marking the spot where Mussolini chose Italy's largest seaside square for his worst speech.

3. 3

   Stop 3

   Pass by

   Look up at the spirit of Trieste, vanished for thirty-two years to make room for a dictator's stage.

4. 4

   Stop 4

   Pass by

   Step inside the café whose engraved mirrors once chronicled the city, before invading armies looted them.

5. 5

   Palazzo del Municipio

   Pass by

   Watch two black metal figures swing their hammers above the square at the top of every hour.

6. 6

   Stop 6

   Pass by

   Pass beneath a Roman gate whose name comes from a king who was never here.

7. 7

   Stop 7

   Pass by

   Find the seam where two early Christian churches were fused into one cathedral in the fourteenth century.

8. 8

   Stop 8

   Pass by

   Climb the Habsburg fortress that never fought a war, but jailed an alchemist with a mercury cure.

9. 9

   Stop 9

   Pass by

   Walk a hillside that was once a Jewish cemetery, now a memorial of rough Karst stones.

10. 10

    Scala dei Giganti

    Pass by

    Count the steps locals once accused of being built for a race of giants.

11. 11

    Stop 11

    Pass by

    Spot a two-thousand-year-old theatre that an entire neighbourhood was built on top of and forgotten.

12. 12

    Stop 12

    Pass by

    Discover the bronze emperor a Fascist regime took down, hid in storage, and quietly returned.

13. 13

    Libreria Antiquaria Umberto Saba

    Pass by

    Browse the second-hand shop a poet bought the year the First World War ended.

14. 14

    Stop 14

    Pass by

    Encounter the red, white and green Italian tricolour, accidentally assembled by three Habsburg-era bridges.

15. 15

    Stop 15

    Pass by

    Cross the canal Maria Theresa cut through a salt marsh to make Trieste the empire's main port.

16. 16

    Stop 16

    Pass by

    See the blue and gold Serbian church whose congregation politely split from the Greeks after twenty-six years.

17. 17

    Stop 17

    Pass by

    Look for bullet marks inside a church where Allied police once opened fire on protesters.

18. 18

    Stop 18

    Pass by

    Examine two bronze cherubs delivering letters above the side doors of the grandest post office you will see.

• Service animals allowed
• Public transportation options are available nearby
• Suitable for all physical fitness levels

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.