Tram di Opicina

Trieste is not a city in a hurry. It is one of those that knows how to wait and enjoy the journey. Perhaps because its seafaring instinct, even when disguised as a northern city, is always and in any case present, but Trieste has a hedonistic, rather than functional, relationship with time. And so you understand the reasoning behind what might seem a bizarre choice: bringing an old tram back to life on a steep incline.

The Tram di Opicina connects the centre to the Karst with an ancient, almost stubborn movement. It sets off from the city, passes through quiet neighbourhoods, then climbs the gradient with its historic rack-and-pinion system. It is not simply a means of transport. It is a literal ascent. As the tram climbs, the sea draws away and simultaneously expands. The rooftops become a pattern. Inside, the wooden seats and wide windows frame the regular sound on the rails, which immediately carries the mind back to the early 1900s. You stay seated, but your gaze and imagination do the work. Arriving in Opicina, the air is drier. The Karst opens up the space. The paths begin just beyond the stop. The city remains visible, but distant. Trieste is this too: sea and plateau in the same horizon.