Since 1719 Trieste has begun to play an important role as a place of exchange between central-oriental Europe (the Empire of Hapsburg ) and the Mediterranean area, as the harbour of the Empire. Over two centuries it turned into a crossroads of cultural and commercial exchanges.
With the fall of the Empire of Hapsburg and the – dramatic and excruciating – annexation to Italy with the First World War, though, Trieste embarked on its odyssey. It passed from hand to hand, feeling on its own skin the torment of a creeping and growing hatred: fascism pouncing on Slovenian people first, then on the Jewish, on to the brief but ripping domination of Yugoslavia; then the Americans and the Morgan Line, traced arbitrarily; finally the Istrian exodus.
Ever since the fall of the Empire of Hapsburg, because its position, Trieste has been a disputed city.
Today, it still has to face its multiple and conflicting identity. Which, perhaps, could be the source of its redemption.

These are the people that will narrate the disputed identity of Trieste, between nature, literature, science, art, history and music:

Comandante De Visentini of the Old Harbour of Trieste

Don Ugo Bastiani – Parish of San Giovanni sul Timavo, where the evangelization of Slavic people began;

Andrea Segrè ¬- Professor – nephew of the Foundator of Doxa;

Barbara Fornasir Architect

Paolo Rossi – Actor, scholar of Giorgio Strehler;

Elena Marco – Journalist, working for “Piccolo di Trieste”; of Hungarian origins

Pino Roveredo - Writer, Campiello Prize winner in 2005;

Mauro Covacich - Writer

Miram Kosuta - Writer and translator in Slovenian language;

Raul Pupo – Historic;

Alessandra Tribuson and Lucio Ulian – Forest rangers;
Giorgio Rossetti – Political analyst and member of the European Parliament for the Italian Communist Party during the years of Iron Curtain;

Mario Cerne Bookseller – owner of Umberto Saba Library, son of Mr. Cerne that helped Saba, taking over the property of the library when racial laws were promulgated

Marija Mitrovic – Professor of Serbian Literature and language – the Serbs are an important and numerous community both in old and current Trieste

Mauro Giacca Director of ICGEB – Centre of Genetic Engineering, with branches in Bombay and New York, a top of the range for research both at national and international level;

Mauro Moshe Tabor – Jewish community of Trieste;

Giuseppe dell’Acqua – collaborator of Basaglia – psychiatrist