The best of both worlds in north-east Italy: less than an hour from Venice and near the Alps for skiing, find seaside holiday homes in elegant Trieste

The elegant city of Trieste offers buyers the best of both worlds, with homes under an hour from Venice and near the Alps for skiing.
Cathy Hawker24 April 2017

The north-east Italian seaside city of Trieste, less than an hour from Venice, is beautiful, safe and quiet. It is also pleasingly close to the borders of Slovenia and Austria, across the Adriatic from Croatia and easily close enough to the Alps for a day’s skiing. The weather in spring and summer is wonderfully warm and sunny, though the Bora, a fierce north-easterly wind, sometimes blows through in winter.

Trieste has long been a favoured holiday destination with Austrians, and there’s more than a hint of Mittel-European culture in its classical architecture and cosy, wood-panelled cafés.

It is the sea that defines Trieste. Walk from elegant Piazza Unità d’Italia, Europe’s largest waterfront square, to the Grand Canal and you understand why the city was a power player in the 10th century.

Magnificent: Piazza Unità d’Italia, Trieste’s handsome and historic main square, faces the Adriatic Sea
Getty Images

Even today, while Trieste is not a well-known weekend destination for Londoners, its busy port and shipbuilding industry maintain the region’s wealth.

And every October its waters host one of Europe’s busiest and best regattas. the Barcolana, which attracts 2,000 boats and 25,000 sailors. Up to 250,000 spectators line the Adriatic seafront around Trieste to watch both expert racers and weekend sailors complete the 15-mile course into Slovenian waters and back.

Flats at the marina

Twelve miles west of Trieste in Sistiana, Portopiccolo, a completed residential resort and hotel, opened last year. Built from local stone in the style of an Italian borgo, or village, it forms an amphitheatre facing the sea with 434 properties for sale plus a five-star 75-room Starwood Hotel and 25 small shops and restaurants. A 121-berth marina takes boats up to 78ft, while an exceptional 43,000sq ft spa and hammam with several pools, a gym and exercise rooms opened this month.

Apartments, penthouses and villas with up to five bedrooms stretch from the water up the hillside, all easily accessible by paths and lifts. Homes start from compact 409sq ft studios for £273,500, to two-bedroom apartments from £479,000 and three-bedroom homes from £744,600. Prices exclude VAT, which is a standard 10 per cent on new builds under 2,690sq ft.

From £273,500: Portopiccolo studios and flats near Trieste, with marina berths from £3,000 (portopiccolosistiana.it)

Annual service charges begin at £6,700, optional furniture packages are available from £34,000 and parking spaces are also extra, from £35,000.Boat berths cost £3,000 to £18,800 excluding VAT at 22 per cent. Over half the homes in Portopiccolo are sold. Thirty-two families live there full time and early buyers, while mostly from Italy, also include Chinese, Canadians and others from across Europe.

The resort’s Flavio Bertelle says: “Improvements to the autostrada mean Venice airport is 50 minutes away, while Trieste airport also has flights from London Stansted. Yes we are less famous than Venice — but we are also less crowded, calmer and offer far better service.”

£577,500: a three-bedroom duplex flat in a classical palace in the Via del Teatro in Trieste city centre (gate-away.com)

Sea views in the city

In Trieste itself, average apartment prices in the pedestrianised centre are £192 per square foot — less than a third of those in Venice but also lower than similar-size cities such as Parma and Verona. Homes with a sea view along the Barcola — with its beaches and promenades near historic Miramare Castle — or in classical buildings in the main piazzas, carry a premium.

Gate-Away has a one-bedroom flat in the hills above Trieste for £205,000, a four-bedroom flat in the city centre for £419,000 and a beautiful, three-bedroom duplex flat in a classical palace in the Via del Teatro, in the heart of Trieste, for £577,500.

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