travelling Italy without leaving home
Pro: A real work of art, a beautiful portrait both of the city, and of Morris herself.
Con: The language is very poetic, which isn’t everyone’s taste.
Verdict: Not a travel book so much as a biography of a city, but one with so much depth and detail, and so joyously brought to life.
Towards the end of World War II, a young soldier named James Morris was stationed in Trieste. Years passed and James Morris became a well-respected journalist and travel writer, publishing books on places ranging from New York to Oman and Hong Kong to Venice, as James until 1972, and then, post-op, as Jan.
In 2001, Jan decided it was time to write one final book before taking retirement, and it was back to Trieste that she found herself drawn. The result, Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere, is a masterful story of a city with an incredibly rich and varied history, but which is not nearly as well-known as its status suggests it should be. The writing is descriptive and reflective, and brings the city to life in a way unrivalled by any of her contemporaries. So often travel writing is seen as “disposable”, nothing more than a pleasant form of escapism. Reading Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere, you feel like it should be leather-bound and given pride of place in an oak-paneled library somewhere. A real work of art.
viaggi
Travelling can be a real hassle sometimes. Planning, booking, packing (and if you’re some people I know, unpacking and repacking several more times), how would it be if you could get someone else to do the travelling for you, and report back their findings? Here are three authors who have done just that, writing about their experiences in the bel paese.
BY SAHAR ZIVAN
Jan Morris
Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere