Plan your visit
Trieste is a compact, human-scale city, easy to get around on foot and well connected to the rest of Italy and Central Europe. It is easy to reach by plane, train, or coach.
33 km
Airport to city centre
29 min
Direct train from the airport
2 hrs
By train from Venice
23–25
October 2026, festival dates
Getting to Trieste
By air
The most direct option from abroad is to fly to Trieste Airport (TRS), at Ronchi dei Legionari, served by regular flights from Rome, Munich, and London Stansted, among other destinations. Ryanair uses Trieste as a focus city.
Alternatively, Venice Marco Polo Airport and Treviso Airport (the latter with extensive low-cost connections) are both well served internationally, with easy onward train connections to Trieste.
From Venice Marco Polo / Treviso
From Venice Marco Polo Airport, take the bus to Venezia Mestre station, then a direct regional train to Trieste Centrale.
Total journey time approximately 2–3 hours depending on connections.
From Trieste Airport (TRS) to the centre
The airport is about 33 km northwest of the city. Three ways in:
Recommended
By train
29 min
The airport has its own train station, connected to the terminal by a covered walkway. Direct regional trains run to Trieste Centrale.
Door to door
By taxi
€50–70
Pre-booked private transfers are also available and useful for groups or late arrivals.
Radio Taxi Trieste
+39 040 307730
Before you board the bus: tickets must be bought in advance, at the airport ticket desk or newsstand. It is not possible to pay on the bus.
By train
From Venice
Direct regional services run from Venezia Mestre along the coast, arriving at Trieste Centrale. The journey takes approximately 2 hours, with departures roughly every 30 minutes throughout the day (first trains around 05:00, last around 23:00).
By coach
Coaches arrive at Trieste Bus Station (Autostazione Silos), on Piazza della Libertà, next to Trieste Centrale. FlixBus connects Trieste to the main Italian cities, including Milan and Venice, and to Ljubljana, Zagreb and Rijeka.
The ticket office also sells tickets for operators serving Slovenia, Croatia, Austria, Germany and Serbia, and there is a left-luggage desk and a currency exchange.
By car
Trieste is well served by motorways from both the west (A4 from Venice/Milan) and the north via Udine.
Parking is available at Porto Vecchio, along the seafront, and near the Teatro Romano. Visitors staying in central hotels should confirm parking with their hotel in advance.
In Trieste
The festival
Trieste Photo Days 2026
An international photography festival, now in its thirteenth edition, showing over 2,000 works in museums and venues across the city. It runs from 23 to 25 October 2026, with openings and first events already on Thursday 22.
The exhibition venues are in the centre, a few minutes apart on foot: Sala Veruda, Sala Xenia, Sartorio Museum, Palazzo delle Poste Centrali, ITIS, Sala Fittke. Trieste Photo Fringe links the venues along the city’s streets with a circuit of selected bars.
The exhibitions at Magazzino 26, in Porto Vecchio, are about thirty minutes’ walk from Trieste Centrale along the seafront. By bus: lines 6 and 36. Outside the city, the URBAN exhibitions at Trieste Airport preview the October programme.
The programme includes workshops, portfolio reviews, masterclasses, photowalks, guided tours of the exhibitions, the closing talks with the international guests and the contest award ceremonies.
The city centre
Piazza Unità d’Italia is one of the largest seafront squares in Europe, open on one side to the Gulf of Trieste. Just beyond it lies Borgo Teresiano, the eighteenth-century grid laid out under Maria Theresa of Austria on land reclaimed from the old salt pans. At its centre is the Canal Grande, a short, straight stretch of water lined with pastel buildings and small boats, closed at its far end by the neoclassical church of Sant’Antonio Taumaturgo.
The hill
Walk up through the lanes of the Città Vecchia (the old city, the medieval quarter) to the Colle di San Giusto. At the top: the Castello di San Giusto, a 15th-century fortress with views across the city and port, and the Cattedrale di San Giusto. On the way up, don’t miss the Teatro Romano, a first-century Roman theatre, partly excavated, quietly atmospheric.
The waterfront
The Molo Audace, a long stone pier jutting into the gulf, is where Triestines walk at all hours. The Passeggiata a Mare (seafront promenade) extends towards Barcola, a neighbourhood beloved for summer swimming.
Getting around
The city centre is flat and easily walkable. For the Colle di San Giusto, a short but steep climb. Buses serve all outer neighbourhoods.
The historic tram of Opicina, a unique hybrid tram-funicular that climbs the limestone escarpment above the city with panoramic views over the gulf, resumed service in July 2026. Checking current timetables before visiting is recommended.
Day trips
Trieste’s position on the border between Italy and Slovenia makes it an excellent base for short excursions. If you are planning to stay for a few days, here are some places worth visiting.
Miramare Castle
15 min by bus
The Karst
30–40 min
Rilke Trail and Duino
40 min by bus or train
Aquileia and Grado
1 hr by train and bus
Gorizia / Nova Gorica
1 hr by train
Piran, Slovenia
1 hr by road
Lipica and Škocjan Caves
1 hr by road
Ljubljana
1.5 hrs by bus
Travelling with a non-photographer
Bring them anyway. Trieste has a plan for them.
Not everyone measures a city in f-stops. If your travelling companion starts to glaze over somewhere around the third exhibition, the good news is that every destination above works just as well without a camera.
Send them to Lipica, half an hour over the Slovenian border, where Lipizzaner horses have been bred on Karst pasture for four centuries. Next door, Grand Casino Lipica keeps its own hours, and will happily entertain them long after the horses have gone to bed.
Elsewhere: the Grotta Gigante on the plateau is one of the largest single-chamber show caves in the world. Barcola is where Trieste actually swims. The gardens at Miramare are open all year. And when an ivy branch appears above a doorway on the Karst, it means an osmiza is open: a family cellar pouring its own wine and serving its own cured meats, for a few weeks only, no booking required.
You will come home with photographs. They will come home with firm opinions about the wine. Everybody wins.
Current timetables
trenitalia.com flixbus.com triesteairport.it delfinoverde.it