18 January 2022

Trieste, city of Joy(ce)

The BirthAnniversary we’ve been waiting for!

22 is a magic number for our anti-hero JJ: on 2.2.1822 the great Irish writer, patron of our hotel, was born. And in 1922, his masterpiece ULYSSES was finally published.

2022 is therefore a year of great celebrations in his honour.

We too would like to pay tribute to him and to toast him as he would have wished, with his favourite wine, Opollo from Lissa, which he loved to drink in the taverns of the old town.

As Prof. Crivelli wrote:

“James Joyce’s years in Trieste were difficult but fruitful. Still in financial straits, the Irish writer loved to frequent the city’s main social venues: taverns and restaurants. As we know, Joyce was a great drinker (he also smoked a lot, Turmac) but he could certainly not afford spirits. His passion, however, was wine, especially white or rosé wine, such as the famous Opollo di Lissa, which was very popular at the beginning of the 20th century. A wine which, as they say, was light and refreshing, but legs-sawing. We have, in fact, news of the expeditions made by his brother Stanislaus, who had joined him in Trieste in 1905, in search of the poor drinker, who had ended up in some corner of a dive bar in Cavana. When he found him, he would carry him on his back and give him back to his companion Nora, who was forced to wait for him until the early hours of the morning”.

For this reason, wine and literature, which Joyce knew how to combine so well, become this year for our guests the possibility of a weekend stay in which we offer a walk to discover Joyce’s Trieste with a final aperitif, strictly in the Barbacan, a small square now as then full of taverns, to try the now unobtainable Opollo di Lissa.