Eataly, Trieste

My newest discovery!



Over the years I have watched Trieste slowly being restored to its former glory. It's something I look forward to discovering with each new visit. I've seen building facades brought back to their prime, Piazza Unita given a lift with new pavers and inground lighting, the old fish market redeveloped as gallery space with travelling exhibitions, pedestrian zones and new cafes springing up into the city centre.

Next to the old fish market, right on the water's edge was an old crumbling, roofless building, then a few years back I noticed that it had been fenced off and there was work happening on site. Further investigation (I asked my father!) I found out that it had been an old wine warehouse, it was known as the 'Antico Magazzino Vini'. Not that antique, when I looked it up as it had been built in 1902 as a wine warehouse for barrels of wine coming from Istria and even further afield from Dalmatia. From doing some research it seems the restoration of the building had taken 11 years! I thought it had been a while but not that long!

Work on the building seemed to have come to a halt,  but last year I passed by and was pleased to see the building was finished and opened, it had a sign stating 'Eataly'. I happily entered expecting a restaurant by the marina, it was much more than that. It turns out that Eataly is a franchise and its latest store was this one in Trieste, opened in January 2017.  Although there are other Eataly stores in Italy and in certain locations around the world, up until visiting the Trieste one, I had never experienced one. As soon as I entered I loved it. The mission of Eataly is to promote Italian food, it's a foodies' paradise! 



You enter into a large open space with escalators through the centre, there are sections dedicated to specific food groups, e.g. fish, wine, bread, along with areas to eat.


Upstairs the area with cheeses and meats, there's also a restaurant.

Downstairs there's a wine bar called Pane & Vino (bread and wine) that serves light snacks, I had a salad with mozzarella. There's seating by a huge glass window which I think occupies the space where the warehouse was open to the dock for the wine barrels to be offloaded. Now there's a beautiful view of the marina.

Across from the wine bar is a coffee shop called Gran Bar illy, illy coffee was founded and the company is based in Trieste. Bought a 'latte macchiato' to enjoy while I savoured the view.



From the photo it appears as there's no barrier, but there is actually a large glass window separating the outside with the interior.

Eataly also has a gelateria and for locals there's a cooking school. They offer special cooking lessons for children and also pensioners. I noticed there was also a bookshop with a selection of cookery books as well.

Eataly Trieste is located within walking distance of the cruise ship terminal so it would make for a pleasant stroll for day-trippers coming from the ships. On the occasions I visited there seemed to be a cross section of locals and visitors, judging by the languages I heard spoken around me. I liked it so much that I plan to be a regular on each visit to Trieste!

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